Colorado Governor Fires Two Clemency Board Members and Commutes Tina Peters’s Sentence

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis fired Azra Taslimi and Hannah Seigel Proff from the state clemency board on Wednesday after the two members publicly opposed his decision to commute the prison sentence of former Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters. Taslimi and Seigel Proff told The New York Times that the board twice voted unanimously to reject Peters’s commutation application.

They said they disclosed the secret details because they objected to Polis overruling the panel. Polis’s office confirmed the dismissals, citing violations of the board’s confidentiality standards. Polis commuted Peters’s nine-year sentence in May 2026 after she had served less than one-quarter of it.

Peters, 70, was convicted by a jury of seven of ten counts related to her actions concerning the 2020 presidential election. She certified results stating that President Trump won Mesa County despite former President Biden winning the county. In 2021 she allowed a man associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to copy the county’s voter systems.

Peters was released from prison last month. Hours after her release she stated that Democrats “cheat” in elections. Polis said Peters committed criminal activity but her right to free speech protected her from an “overly harsh” prison sentence.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold condemned the commutation. State Democrats issued a censure of Polis over the decision. President Trump urged Polis for months to commute the sentence and met with Peters at the White House earlier this week.

’ became the rallying cry of the Republican Party over the past two years” and that Peters had come to thank him for securing her release. The clemency review board normally operates in secret and does not disclose its recommendations to the governor.