Tina Peters, a former elections clerk who was the first local official convicted over efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election, will go free from prison after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) commuted her sentence Friday.
Polis told Colorado Public Radio earlier in the day from the governor’s office that he would cut her almost nine-year prison sentence to 4 1/2 years. By June 1, she will have been in prison for more than 600 days.
The governor added that Peters “did not interfere with any election, did not have to do with ballot counting, but it was illegal access to the computer room.”
“She thought she was trying to back up the software before it was updated,” Polis said. “She did it illegally. There’s no question about it. And she deserves to go to prison. And I think this is a more appropriate, even harsh, frankly, sentence for that crime.”