Colorado Democrats voted to censure Gov. Jared Polis after he commuted the prison sentence of Tina Peters, a former county clerk convicted in a scheme tied to the county election system. The censure vote was taken Wednesday by the Colorado Democratic Party’s Central Committee, according to the party’s vote tally and an Associated Press report.
About 90% of the party’s roughly 700 Central Committee members backed the censure, a step that will bar Polis—who is term-limited and in his final year—from being an honored guest, featured speaker, or officially recognized party representative at party-sponsored events. The party later issued a statement describing the decision as responding to the broader threat it associates with election tampering.
Peters, 70, is serving a prison sentence that had been imposed after she was convicted in 2024. Prosecutors and the court record described the case as a plan to make a copy of her county’s election computer system, and Peters’ conviction led to a nine-year prison term.
Polis commuted Peters’ sentence on Friday, and Peters was set to be released June 1. In a letter to Peters, Polis told her that she deserved prison time but said she received an “extremely unusual and lengthy” sentence for a first-time, nonviolent offender, according to the AP report.
The censure vote also unfolded amid efforts around Peters’ conviction that continued through court proceedings. In April, a Colorado appeals court upheld Peters’ conviction but ordered that she be resentenced, saying the judge had wrongly punished her for speaking out about election fraud.
The Colorado Democratic Party said Trump championed Peters’ cause and argued that reducing Peters’ sentence sets a precedent at a time when the party says democracy and voting rights are under attack nationwide. The party statement said the commutation was “dangerous and disappointing” and warned it sends a message to “future bad actors” that election tampering has consequences unless officials are protected by closeness to the president.
In response to the party’s censure, Polis defended the commutation after the vote. Polis spokesperson Eric Maruyama said in an emailed statement Thursday that Polis made the decision based on the facts of the case and what he believed was the right outcome, and that democracy is strongest when disagreement is met with debate and dialogue rather than what Maruyama described as censorship.
Peters issued a statement after the commutation thanking Polis and apologizing for her crime, the AP report said. The reporting also described Peters’ 2021 conduct during a system upgrade as involving an outside computer expert associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and said Peters later appeared with Lindell at an event described as a “cybersymposium” while photos of the upgrade—including passwords—were posted online.