A former Colorado county clerk who promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election was sentenced Thursday to nine years behind bars after being convicted of official misconduct, among other charges, in connection with a security breach of Mesa County’s voting system.

Tina Peters was convicted in August of four felonies and three misdemeanors for using someone else’s security badge to give someone associated with MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, a prominent election denier and ally of former President Donald Trump, access to election equipment of the province in which Dominion Voting Systems was involved. .

The county’s machines had to be replaced afterward when data, including passwords for the machines, was posted online. Peters claimed she did not know the information would become public.

“Your lies are well documented and these convictions are serious,” Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters before handing down his sentence for the 2021 security breach, calling her a “charlatan” who used her time in office “to sell snake oil.” .

The judge told Peters she failed to consider how her lies had harmed her province and her colleagues. “The damage is immeasurable,” Barrett said. “I’m convinced you would do it again if you could.”

He said every time one of her conspiratorial claims “is refuted or proven false, another story is made up.”

“You are as challenging a defendant as I have ever seen,” Barrett said.

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Peters was “a fox guarding the hen house,” prosecutor Jessica Drake said in her closing argument in August. “Her job was to protect the election equipment, and she turned it on and used her power for her own benefit.”

Peters claims she did nothing wrong.

“It is with a heavy heart that I hear the vile accusations and anger leveled against me for what I did to protect the people of Mesa County,” she told the judge before she was sentenced. Peters said she was just trying to preserve information to ensure the election would be safe and asked the judge to sentence her to probation.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, told the judge there were legal options she could have used to keep the information she wanted without engaging in an “insidious” scheme. He said her actions cost the county more than $1 million.

Citing her lack of remorse, prosecutor Daniel Rubinstein asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence, without specifying what that would be. He also noted that despite her claims of widespread fraud, she has never identified a single fake vote.

County officials said Peters’ persistent fraudulent election claims also led to a slew of death threats against election workers as she traveled around the country promoting her claims and neglected her professional duties. Peters disputed that account, saying she called the office when she was out of state.

The judge told her Thursday, “It appears to me that you have never taken your job as a law clerk particularly seriously,” noting that she never completed her election training after getting the post. “At its core, it’s all about you,” he said, dismissing what he said was her belief that “the echo chamber you live in couldn’t be wrong.”

Peters ran for Colorado secretary of state in 2022 after she was indicted. She was defeated in the Republican primary and alleged election fraud in that race, demanding a recount after losing by 85,000 votes. The recount resulted in her receiving an additional 13 votes, as did the primary’s overall winner, Pam Anderson.