Colorado Gov. Polis Commutes Remainder of Tina Peters’ Sentence for Election Equipment Tampering Convictions

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced on May 15, 2026 that he is commuting the prison sentence of former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters. ” The move comes one month after a state appeals court found Peters’ lengthy sentence improper and directed she be resentenced.

In their April 2 ruling, a panel of Colorado Court of Appeals judges determined the judge who sentenced Peters put too much weight on her beliefs about the election being stolen, violating her First Amendment rights. “Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud,” the appeals court stated.

” It directed the trial judge, Matthew Branch, to resentence her without consideration of her comments on the 2020 election.

Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison after her conviction on four felony and three misdemeanor charges in August 2024. She used another person’s security badge to allow someone associated with MyPillow founder Mike Lindell access to county election equipment involving Dominion Voting Systems.

The county’s machines had to be replaced after data, including passwords for the machines, was posted online.

County officials said Peters’ fraud claims led to a slew of death threats against election workers. At her sentencing in 2024, District Attorney Daniel Rubinstein asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence. Despite Peters’ claims of widespread fraud, she never identified a single bogus vote, Rubinstein stated.