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Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday commuted the sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — the former election clerk convicted in connection with a 2021 voting equipment breach case that became a flashpoint in the election integrity fight — drawing immediate backlash from Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and praise from President Donald Trump, who posted “FREE TINA!” on Truth Social.
Polis announced clemency for 44 individuals Friday, including 35 pardons and nine commutations, according to the governor’s office. Peters was among those granted a commutation reducing her prison sentence and granting parole effective June 1, 2026.
“The Clemency power is a serious responsibility, and not one that I take lightly,” Polis said in a statement announcing the clemency actions.
“This power has the ability to change lives – help grant a second chance for someone who has made grave mistakes – and it comes with great consideration, and sometimes even controversy,” he added.
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Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters speaks at a rally on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, Colorado, on April 5, 2022. (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post)
The move immediately prompted a blistering response from Griswold, who accused Polis of legitimizing “the election denial movement.”
“This clemency grant to Tina Peters is an affront to our democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country,” Griswold said in a statement Friday.
“The Governor’s actions today will validate and embolden the election denial movement, and leave a dark, dangerous imprint on American democracy for years to come,” she added.
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Mesa County Clerk and Colorado Republican candidate for secretary of state Tina Peters will receive a pardon from President Donald Trump. Peters is serving a nine-year sentence after a state jury convicted her of participating in a scheme to breach the Mesa County voting systems. (Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)
According to the executive order signed Friday, Peters’ sentence was commuted from 8 years and 3 months to 4 years and 4.5 months. The order grants her parole effective June 1, 2026, with conditions to be set by the Colorado Parole Board.
“Tina M. Peters be and hereby is granted a limited commutation such that her total sentence, inclusive of time in County Jail and the Department of Corrections, is commuted to 4 years and 4.5 months, and that she is granted parole effective June 1, 2026,” the order states.
The executive order also explicitly noted that the clemency action “shall not in any way affect the underlying criminal conviction.”
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Polis wrote in the order that “the constitutional and statutory conditions for granting this clemency petition have been satisfied, and granting this commutation is in the interest of justice.”
According to the executive order, Peters was convicted in 2024 of three counts of attempt to influence a public servant, along with conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation – cause liability, official misconduct, violation of duty elections and failure to comply with secretary of state requirements.
She had been sentenced to 8 years and 3 months in Department of Corrections custody, along with 6 months in county jail. Her mandatory release date had previously been listed in 2033, while her estimated parole eligibility date had been in 2028.
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Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks with members of the media outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 8, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg)
Griswold’s office said Peters’ actions stemmed from a 2021 breach involving Mesa County voting equipment.
“In 2021, then-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters compromised her county’s voting equipment trying to prove conspiracies,” Griswold’s office said in a release Friday.
The office said Griswold responded by decertifying the county’s voting equipment, working with Mesa County commissioners to remove Peters from election oversight and appointing a former Republican secretary of state to oversee the election process.
Griswold’s office also said Peters’ actions cost Mesa County “nearly one million dollars in replacement equipment.”
The secretary of state’s office noted that on April 2, 2026, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld Peters’ convictions while ordering that she be re-sentenced by the district court.
Trump weighed in on the commutation Friday afternoon with a brief Truth Social post reading simply: “FREE TINA!”
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Peters became a nationally known figure among 2020 election skeptics following the Mesa County voting equipment breach controversy and subsequent criminal prosecution.
Friday’s clemency order immediately deepened political divisions surrounding one of the highest-profile criminal prosecutions in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.