When the latest “trusted build” voting software and firmware was installed on Mesa County election computers last May, someone identified as “Gerald Wood” was there at the invitation of Clerk Tina Peters. Except apparently, “Gerald Wood” was not really Gerald Wood. It was an impostor equipped with Wood’s access badge — and Peters knew it.

So alleges an 18-page indictment unsealed Wednesday by Republican District Attorney Dan Rubenstein. It stems from the ongoing investigation into an alleged May 2021 election security breach in Mesa County. The indictment includes ten counts against Peters (seven felonies, three misdemeanors) and six counts against deputy clerk Belinda Knisley (four felonies, two misdemeanors).

Among Peters’ felony counts are identity theft, criminal impersonation and two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. Knisley’s felony charges include one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. As of deadline, both were being held on $500,00 cash bond.

Peters, a known skeptic of the 2020 presidential election results, is running in the Republican primary for secretary of state.

According to the indictment, sometime before May 18, the real Gerald Wood was recruited by Peters to standby for potential contract work assisting her IT department in “backing up Dominion voting machines.”

Although Wood said he had no experience with such equipment, Peters connected him with Knisley, who obtained Woods’s name and social security number for a background check. The next day, Wood got his access badge and handed it over to Knisley.

On Sunday evening, May 23, Wood’s badge was used to access secured election offices, where an image of the election server’s hard drive was made. The trusted build subsequently took place on May 25, 2021, and another image was taken. Employees with the county and secretary of state testified that Peters introduced them to a man “she called Gerald Wood.”

Except this wasn’t Gerald Wood. It was the impostor.

According to the indictment, Wood testified he was not present on May 23 or 25, and he never used the badge he’d given to Knisley on May 19. Evidence was provided to the grand jury corroborating Wood’s sworn testimony regarding his whereabouts.

By May 19, Knisley had allegedly invented several different backstories about Gerald Wood for different people. She emailed HR — CC’ing Peters — claiming he was a “‘Temp Employee’ (for the Elections Department) needing security badge access and a county email address” and “not a new hire.”

Knisley told IT that Wood was “someone from the state and would need an email address like the last time someone from the state came in.” That employee created a network login and county email for Wood. Knisley told their elections managers that Wood was the new “Admin. Assistant” in the clerk’s office.

When impostor “Gerald Wood” showed up on May 25, Peters claimed to the SOS representative that Wood was “an employee of the Motor Vehicle Division who was transferring over to Elections.”

Apparently, they were all lies. As the indictment explains, “Wood was never hired by Mesa County in any capacity, he has never done any work for Mesa County, and he has never been employed by the state.”

Furthermore, on May 17, 2021, Knisley directed IT to deactivate all surveillance cameras within the election offices — an unprecedented request, according to testimony from a county IT employee. Knisley stated in an Aug. 10 interview that it was Peters who instructed her to turn off the cameras.

Let’s be clear: Peters and Knisley allegedly — albeit supported by concrete evidence — brought Gerald Wood in under false pretenses. They fabricated various backstories for him. When “Gerald Wood” used his badge, it wasn’t actually Gerald Wood using it — while the cameras were conveniently turned off.

Ultimately, the hard drive images illicitly taken before and after the trusted build, purportedly by “Gerald Wood,” were leaked online and debuted at an election conspiracy conference in August.

An indictment is not a conviction; it means formal charges are presented for prosecution. However, the allegations in this case are shocking. This seems like an elaborate identity theft scheme orchestrated by a county clerk to secure an access badge for a nonemployee under false pretenses.

As the secretary of state’s office informed all clerks in an April 2021 email, “Only authorized state staff, county election staff and Dominion staff may be present during the trusted build.”

To ostensibly comply with requirements, Wood’s name badge was used by an impersonator whose identity we don’t know, all to take before-and-after images of a hard drive and to support a discredited election conspiracy theory.

In my Gazette column last August, I called for Peters to resign as Mesa county clerk. “This isn’t about Republican or Democrat,” I argued. “It’s about holding the powerful to account…Those who believe Peters is a hero must ask themselves if the supposed ends (whatever those are) morally justify the deceptive, potentially illegal means.”

Tina Peters has proven herself deeply unethical and woefully unfit for office. To genuinely uphold election integrity, election officials must act with integrity.

The significant, credible allegations against Peters place hers in serious doubt. She must resign as clerk — and withdraw her candidacy for secretary of state.

Jimmy Sengenberger is host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 6-9 am on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts “Jimmy at the Crossroads,” a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.