Colorado governor commutes sentence of election denier Tina Peters

The Colorado governor, Jared Polis, commuted the nearly nine-year prison sentence of a former Colorado clerk who allowed unauthorized people to access her county’s voting systems in a case that had been an intense focus of Donald Trump and other allies who sought to overturn the 2020 election. Tina Peters, who is currently incarcerated, will be released on parole on 1 June after Polis reduced her sentence from eight and a half years in prison to about four and a half. “This is an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed non-violent crimes,” Polis wrote in a clemency letter to Peters. Peters, the former clerk in Mesa county in western Colorado, was found guilty of four felonies and three misdemeanors in 2024 . In 2021, she allowed a former pro surfer named Conan Hayes to access the county’s voting equipment and copy it and attend a sensitive upgrade of the county’s voting software. Polis’ decision “validates Trump’s basest impulses and emboldens this lawless president”, said Jena Griswold, Colorado’s top election official. “He has learned now just how hard he needs to push and threaten the state of Colorado to get what he wants. Clemency also will embolden the election denial movement across the country and will leave a dark, dangerous imprint on American democracy for years to come,” she said. “You may hear suggestions that this clemency is simply bringing Tina Peters’ punishment in line with the scope of her crimes. …