Tina Peters isn’t a laughing matter. She is dangerous.

We should not be laughing at Tina Peters.

Yes, it’s hard. She was caught on video attempting to kick a police officer in a downtown Grand Junction bagel shop just days before she announced a run for secretary of state.

But Tina Peters is not funny. She’s dangerous.

Peters is part of a growing base of radicalized individuals attempting to undermine America’s democracy, tear apart our republic and destabilize our local, state, and federal governments. She attended a public event on Thursday night in Castle Rock where 9News reporter Marshall Zelinger captured on video an election conspiracy theorist making a direct threat to the current Colorado secretary of state – Peters’ opponent should she win the Republican nomination.

Election conspiracy follower, Shawn Smith, stood on the stage with Peters and said he had proof – which has to this day never been presented to anyone – that Griswold engaged in criminal election conduct.

“You know, if you’re involved in election fraud, then you deserve to hang,” Smith said, echoing words of Joe Oltmann who hosted the event through the group he founded FEC United. “Sometimes, the old ways are the best ways. I was accused of endorsing violence. I’m not endorsing violence, I’m saying once you put your hand on a hot stove you get burned.”

Peters is seen in the 9News video applauding this clear call for her political opponent to be hung and burned. Voters should repudiate Peters, the election conspiracy, and FEC United’s calls for violence in the Republican primary election on June 28. Colorado voters can register to vote all the way through election day; they can vote early, and unaffiliated voters can vote in whichever primary they chose.

Better yet, Republicans at the caucus should refuse to put Peters on the primary ballot and instead support other candidates.

Given this and other documented public endorsements of violence towards her, Griswold has asked for the Colorado state legislature to fund additional security for state-wide elected officials including herself and the attorney general and state treasurer. Lawmakers should go one step further and immediately provide money in the current budget – known as a supplemental appropriation — to provide Griswold the same security detail as the governor starting as quickly as they can get the appropriation approved.

This election conspiracy and those who are pushing it are out of control. We fear the outcome could be tragic for election officials caught in the crosshairs of extremism.

Oltmann has now made a habit of talking about executing elected officials for treason, doubling down after his vitriol was first reported, saying in a podcast: “I did call for the hanging of traitors because traitors to the nation if you go and look at what it happens for treason, it is punishable by death and so I think they should be hung — two inches off the ground so they choke to death.”

The host of the podcast, Max McGuire, said the conversation was making him uncomfortable.

“We’re trying to plug the boat from every angle. We’re acting like we’re not in a war. We are in a war right now,” Oltmann said.

We are not at war. Members of the media are not the enemy. Oltmann is sick.

America has a functioning democracy that is perfected by a secure and legitimate election process. There is no evidence to the contrary.

And here is where we must point out that Tina Peters knows this. She ran Mesa County’s elections for several years, had first-hand knowledge of how the elections were handled, and has been unable to provide a single iota of evidence that there was a vast conspiracy of fraud in the 2020 election, or in any election for that matters.

The accusations against Peters are astonishing.

State and local officials have asked a grand jury to look into whether Peters acted criminally when she used her position as clerk to twice give someone unapproved entry to a room holding secure election equipment and then allowed the individual to make copies of data from the machines.

While Peters has repeatedly said that the data taken included proof of election fraud, to date all that has been released by Peters and her supporters is a document alleging that a software update to the machines deleted some data. In Colorado, elections are done via paper ballot, and repeatedly counts of the paper ballots have failed to show any evidence of orchestrated fraud, especially not of widespread fraud like Peters says occurred where the ballot machines either changed votes or created fictitious ballots to count.