County Clerk In Vote Case Spurs Discord

BY JIM CARLTON

LOVELAND, Colo.—Ken Ward, a longtime progressive voter, has cast his ballot for fellow Democrat Jared Polis as his congressman and governor.

But Ward, 70 years old, says he is through with Polis if the Colorado governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate frees a convicted election-machine tamperer from state prison.

“If he does that, he’s gonna be done,” said Ward, eyes blazing, from his porch near an upside-down American flag. “Where’s he gonna go?”

At the center of the uproar coursing through Colorado politics is Tina Peters, the incarcerated former Mesa County clerk. Peters is serving a nine-year sentence for orchestrating a breach of her county’s voting machines in an attempt to prove unsubstantiated claims of vote rigging. On Thursday, a state appeals court overturned that sentence, sending it back to the lower court to determine a new punishment.

Polis, meanwhile, is facing a barrage of criticism from Democrats and moderate Republicans— but praise from the right—for appearing to bow to President Trump’s demands to grant her clemency.

Peters, 70, has been grist for a growing fight between Trump and blue Colorado. The president has assailed the state for what he called a miscarriage of justice. “Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections,” he wrote in a December Truth Social post, in which he announced he was pardoning Peters—albeit symbolically, because presidential pardons don’t reach state crimes.

Colorado’s attorney general has sued the Trump administration, alleging it is retaliating against the state in part over the Peters case. The retribution, according to the federal case, includes cutting transportation projects and a proposal to move the U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama. The administration also ordered closure of a national climate- research lab in retribution, the suit alleges.

White House officials have denied any retaliation.

Polis first signaled sympathy for Peters during a Denver television interview in a January, calling her sentence “harsh.” In March, he went further, publicly comparing her prison term to the probation and community service a former Democratic state senator recently received on a similar charge.

“Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law,” Polis wrote on X, suggesting he might grant Peters clemency.

On Thursday, Polis said he agreed with the higher court’s ruling on the sentencing, but didn’t say what action he might take. “I have reviewed many, many sentences during my time as Governor, and Tina Peters’ sentence of nine years was an obvious outlier,” the governor said in a statement.

In recent days, Democrats who have long backed Polis said they see a bewildering turn. The frustration runs deep in Larimer County, a fast-growing area stretching from the Great Plains to Rocky Mountain National Park. The county and Loveland, one of its most populous cities, were early strongholds for Polis.

“You end up electing people who aren’t the people that you thought they were,” said Jacki Marsh, a former Loveland mayor, over lunch at a diner. “For somebody convicted of wrongdoing to be pardoned by the governor would be disappointing, and I think it flies in the face of everybody who voted for him.”

Polis, 50, was born in Boulder, made his fortune in tech startups and won five congressional terms representing a solidly blue district that included most of Larimer County. He held monthly town halls where he was “willing to answer the tough questions,” said Cecil Gutierrez, then Loveland’s mayor. “I think he was very well liked.”

He captured the governorship in 2018, leading a blue wave in which Democrats swept statewide offices. But as governor, Polis has at times broken with his former House constituents, such as when he vetoed a bill sup--ported by Larimer County Democrats to stop a development from using a tax-supported financing arrangement in question. “Developers got in his ear,” said Lisa Chollet, a candidate for county commissioner. The governor in his veto letter said the bill inappropriately targeted a single development.

Polis also appeared to express support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as health and human services secretary, further antagonizing Colorado Democrats. Then came the suggestion he might free Peters. “Yeah, I was surprised,” said Bob Massaro, a Democratic activist.

The backlash has been fierce. All 66 state Democratic lawmakers signed a letter urging the governor not to grant clemency to Peters. The Democratic secretary of state and two Republican members of a county clerks’ group sent a similar one. “Caving into the demands of a vengeful President does not make our state or country better off,” the letter cosigned by the election officials said.

But Polis’s stance is a welcome surprise to some Republicans. “Well, he’s finally saying some of the right things,” said Kevin Lundberg, a GOP former state legislator, in a coffee shop outside Loveland. “Now, if he’s saying, if she will be contrite, and, you know, say I did the wrong thing, and blah, blah, blah, then it’s, it’s all window dressing at that point, because Tina’s a lady with a lot of courage and a lot of conviction.”

At her art gallery in downtown Loveland, Billie Colson, 70, a self-described libertarian who didn’t vote for Polis but voted twice for Trump, said Peters was treated unfairly. She now views the governor more favorably for suggesting the same. “We have to show our ID on the plane, or to buy cigarettes,” Colson said. “I think it’s really easy to defraud with the mail.”

Tim Kubik, a former Democratic chair for Polis in his district, thinks the governor has no intention of freeing Peters— but is performing the gesture to show Trump he tried.

“I know Polis well enough to know that he doesn’t put himself in situations like that,” Kubik said in a Loveland coffee shop, “where he would end up looking weak and a loser, right?”