By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - Colorado Governor Jared Polis signaled on Tuesday he was willing to consider clemency for Tina Peters, a former state county clerk convicted of illegally tampering with voting machines as she pursued claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
Polis, citing the case of another public official who was given a lighter penalty, said clemency may be appropriate to avoid sentencing disparities, although Colorado’s secretary of state said Peters had committed a more grave offence.
Polis has drawn attention to the relatively light sentence - probation and community service - handed down to State Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who was convicted of attempting to influence a public official and other charges after prosecutors said she forged letters from former aides.
“It is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — and yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first-time offender got a nine-year sentence,” Polis, a Democrat, wrote on X. He said that justice needed to be applied evenly.
He extended the clemency application deadline until April 3, allowing him to review the case.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, the state’s top election official, said on Wednesday that it was inaccurate, however, to suggest that the actions of Lewis and Peters had the same impact.
“Peters organized the breach of the election equipment, broke the public trust and attacked the very foundations of our democratic process,” Griswold said in a statement.
Peters, a Republican, was an outspoken supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that he lost the 2020 U.S. presidential election because of widespread fraud.
She was indicted in 2022 following an election security breach at her office that led to voting equipment passwords getting posted on a right-wing blog. She denied wrongdoing.
Peters, 70, was convicted in 2024 on seven charges, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant. She is not eligible for release until November 2028.
Peter Ticktin, a lawyer for Peters, said he hopes the governor commutes the former county clerk’s sentence this week, saying her nine-year sentence was “too harsh.”
Trump has repeatedly called for Peters to be released from the La Vista Correctional Facility, a state prison in Colorado, and has criticized Polis for not granting her clemency.
Trump pardoned Peters in December in a move that was considered symbolic since Peters is not in federal custody.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
