Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) announced Friday he is granting clemency to Tina Peters — the former election official convicted for her role in a voting system breach — cutting her sentence and making her eligible for parole as soon as next month.
The move marks a dramatic and controversial intervention in one of the most closely watched election interference cases to emerge after the 2020 election — and comes after months of sustained pressure from President Donald Trump and his far-right allies to secure Peters’ release.
“We condemn Governor Polis’ clemency grant. It is a gross injustice to our elections, election workers and democracy with far-reaching consequences,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said in a statement. “This is a dark day for democracy.”
Sure, it’s easy to want to imprison fascist criminals for their crimes, because of those fancy words you know, justice, and deterrence, or they will take away your right to vote and execute you as soon as they have the power to do so for not being a reactionary psychopath like them.
But, what if…maybe if we don’t imprison the fascists when they try to stage a coup and discard democracy? There’s a chance like… uh. Wait, hold on. They’ll just… I think, there’s you know, a possibility… Like if they’re old. It…maybe it’ll…improve the general…situation.
I’m Jared Polis and I approved this message.