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Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk and recorder, was granted clemency by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and is set to be released from prison on June 1. <\/p>\n

Peters had been serving a nine-year sentence after she allowed an election integrity activist<\/a> to access parts of Mesa County\u2019s election system in 2020 while investigating possible fraud. An appeals court upheld<\/a> her conviction but said the sentence was unconstitutional as the judge improperly considered her political beliefs, including comments tied to her support for Donald Trump\u2019s claims of voter fraud. <\/p>\n

Polis commuted her sentence, saying it was an extremely unusual length for a first-time offender convicted of nonviolent crimes, while also noting her crime involved illegal actions to update or back up software. Peters said she made mistakes and pledged to follow the law going forward. <\/p>\n

Reactions split politically: some trump-aligned figures praised the decision, while Colorado officials who opposed clemency-including the Colorado Secretary of State and the attorney general-criticized it as harming the rule of law and potentially empowering election-denial efforts. <\/p>\n