Colorado Democrats on Wednesday voted to censure Gov. Jared Polis, their party’s leader, after he commuted the sentence of election denier Tina Peters, who was serving nine years in a state prison on felony charges related to a breach of voting systems in Mesa County, Colorado.
Polis reduced Peter’s sentence by roughly half on Friday, a move that drew swift backlash from state and local Democrats and praise from President Donald Trump, who had long pressured Polis to “free” Peters.
“Reducing her sentence now, under pressure from Donald Trump, is not justice. It sends a message to future bad actors that election tampering has consequences, unless you’re friends with the president. That’s a dangerous and disappointing precedent to set,” the Colorado Democratic Party said in a statement.
Polis’ decision to grant clemency to Peters “harmed the Colorado Democratic Party’s institutional credibility” and “efforts to defend democratic institutions and election integrity,” the party said.
Peters was convicted in 2024 on four felony and three misdemeanor charges stemming from a breach of voting systems in Mesa County, where she was the county clerk during the 2020 presidential election. Peters used someone else’s security badge to allow an associate of fellow election denier Mike Lindell to access county election equipment in an effort to leak election machinery data.
Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and one of the country’s most prominent 2020 election conspiracists, was found guilty in Colorado of defaming a former employee of the voting company Dominion Voting Systems by accusing him of treason. A jury ordered he pay $2.3 million to Eric Coomer, whom he falsely accused of helping to rig the 2020 election in favor of former President Joe Biden.
Peters was convicted by a Colorado jury and sentenced to nine years in state prison. A state appeals court found that her sentence was improper and ordered that she be resentenced in April, a win for Peters, who challenged her sentence by arguing that she would have received a lesser one if not for her public comments about election integrity.
Polis pinned the reduction of Peters’ sentence on that ruling, saying in a statement last week that her prison term was disproportionate to her crimes. But he also had been under intense pressure from Trump and his administration to commute Peters’ sentence.
Peters’ sentence was reduced to 4 1/2 years, and she is eligible for parole on June 1.
Trump has demanded Peters’ release multiple times and has threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” if the state does not agree to release her, saying she has been “tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians.”
Following the commutation, Peters thanked Polis and said she “made mistakes” and “misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment.”
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