Gov. Jared Polis is signaling he may commute the nine-year prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, the last high-profile election denier still behind bars for crimes tied to the 2020 election.
He should not. Peters is exactly where she belongs.
The Herald's editorial board has said so repeatedly – when Peters was first convicted (May 9, 2025), when Colorado clerks defended election integrity (Dec. 5, 2025), when the Trump administration retaliated against Colorado over her imprisonment (Dec. 21, 2025), when Polis first signaled he might reconsider her sentence (Jan. 14, 2026), and when we warned about the dangers of unchecked presidential pressure (Jan. 21, 2026). Our view has not changed.
Her conviction was not partisan revenge or political theater. A 12-member Mesa County jury unanimously found her guilty on seven counts – including four felonies – for orchestrating a breach of her county's election system. That jury was drawn from Mesa County, a strongly Republican community that overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump – and even the county's three Republican commissioners condemned Peters' actions, saying she turned their community into a “laughingstock” and left taxpayers with $1.4 million in costs.
As clerk, she shut off a security camera, allowed an associate using another person's identity to access secure voting equipment, and helped copy sensitive election data that later appeared online. Those actions were not protected speech.
Peters has every First Amendment right to claim – loudly and endlessly – that the 2020 election was stolen. What she does not have the right to do is sabotage the election systems she was sworn to safeguard.
Polis has compared Peters' case to that of former state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who was sentenced to probation after being convicted of attempting to influence a public official. The comparison collapses under minimal scrutiny. As Denver District Attorney John Walsh noted in remarks reported by The New York Times, the two cases were not “even in the same solar system in terms of the severity of their conduct.” Some lawmakers have suggested the more appropriate question is whether Jaquez Lewis's sentence was too lenient – not whether Peters' was too harsh. If Polis believes justice was poorly served in that case, his energy would be better directed there.
Peters didn't forge letters in a personal ethics dispute. She orchestrated a breach of election equipment that fueled national conspiracy theories and unleashed threats and harassment against election workers across Colorado.
Opposition to clemency crosses party lines. No Democrat in the Legislature has publicly supported it, nor does Mesa County's own district attorney, Dan Rubinstein, a Republican, who warned commuting Peters' sentence would be a “gross injustice.” Attorney General Phil Weiser, called it a “grave miscarriage of justice.”
Colorado's county clerks – who know elections best – warned in a rare bipartisan letter that allowing Peters to escape consequences would signal that election sabotage can be negotiated away through political pressure. As La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Lee told this editorial board last year, Peters “absolutely deserved jail time,” noting that election officials work painstakingly to follow the law and safeguard the voting process.
Peters has shown none of the qualities typically required for clemency: remorse, accountability or rehabilitation. She continues repeating the conspiracy theories that led to her crimes. Surveillance footage recently showed her grabbing another inmate by the neck in prison – hardly evidence of rehabilitation. She will be eligible for parole in November 2028 and could be released earlier based on good-behavior credits. That is what the legal system allows.
Polis may believe commuting Peters' sentence could ease Trump's retaliation against Colorado, from canceled federal funding to the relocation of Space Command. That hope is naive. Appeasing a bully rarely stops the bullying.
If Polis reduces Peters' sentence, it will define his governorship – and not favorably.
Colorado's justice system worked. A jury delivered its verdict. A judge imposed a lawful sentence. Gov. Polis should respect both. Tina Peters should remain in prison.
