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© Provided by Grand Junction-Montrose KKCO Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters presents Board of Commissioners with alleged evidence of destruction of election records by Madelynn Fellet, Tom Ferguson GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - On Friday, Sept. 17, Mesa Co. Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters presented the Mesa Co. Board of Commissioners with alleged evidence of a significant loss of data found within the Mesa Co. voting systems. Peters explained in an interview that, ““Behind my back and contrary to prior representations, these records were destroyed by the Secretary of State and the vendor. And, preventing any audit of the 2020 election. This appears to be a serious crime. But thanks to my arranging for a forensic image, that the ems servers, just beforehand, those records are preserved.” According to Peters, this information was lost during a routine election system maintenance operation called a “trusted build” on May 25, 2021. The Colo. Sec. of State Jena Griswold has stripped Clerk Peters of her election supervision authorities. In Aug., the Mesa Co. Board of Commissioners appointed Wayne Williams as the county’s Designated Election Official. Mesa Co. had to replace its voting equipment after Griswold decertified citing security compromises. The county’s new voting systems have since been certified. According to Peters, ““The report also shows that these machines cannot meet certification requirements of the State of Colorado, and should not have been certified for use. This is why I had to arrange for these images to be made. It was the only way I could find if the records were in fact destroyed, and whether the machines were designed to accurately tabulate the votes. And it turned out my suspicions were correct.” The report claims, “forensic examination found that election records, including data described in the Federal Election Commission’s 2002 Voting Systems Stands (VSS) mandated by Colorado law as certification requirements for Colorado voting systems, have been destroyed on the Mesa County’s voting system, by the system vendor and the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.” The report then continues by naming concerns for possible data destruction in other counties. He detailed how, “We’ve reached out to a couple cyber experts, and again we just got this on Friday afternoon and it’s Monday so, this report is very fresh. It also has been filed with the courts by Tina Peters’ attorney Scott Gessler, so it is going to be used in court, to prove or at least allege, that there has been some type of election impropriety.” Davis is also saying, “So far, the preliminary look that our cyber security experts have looked into, don’t put a lot of weight into them, but we still want them thoroughly vetted by the proper parties.” In the report’s conclusion, it claims that election-related data and election data that is explicitly required to be preserved was destroyed in violation of law. Furthermore, the report asserts that the specific configuration settings of the server have likely not been met despite this system having been certified and thereby approved for use in Colorado by the Colo. Sec. of State. The report concludes by stating, “Further investigation is required to determine the full scope of non-compliance with legal mandates for voting systems and election records, and whether the non-compliance is deliberate or simply negligent.” Clerk Peters has expressed mistrust in Mesa Co.’s voting systems, citing this alleged information loss. Commissioner Davis is encouraging the public to turn out and vote this fall. He says the multiple security measures put in place, like cross-tabulation and posting ballot images online, will ensure election security in Mesa Co. Copyright 2021 KKCO. All rights reserved