Capitulation in Colorado: Jared Polis, Donald Trump, and the Betrayal of Justice

The Democratic governor thinks Colorado voters won't notice his surrender to Donald Trump. But by commuting Tina Peters’ sentence, Polis didn't defend free speech—he took a hammer to democracy.

Kristoffer Ealy is a political scientist, political analyst, and professor in Southern California. He teaches American Government and political behavior, with a focus on political psychology, voting behavior, and political socialization. Subscribe to his Substack, The Thinking Class with Professor Ealy.

I am going to just come out and say it: the people of Colorado, your governor obviously thinks that you are stupid. Not misled, not uninformed, not caught in the crossfire of a complicated legal debate — no. He thinks you are stupid. He thinks you will swallow whatever he feeds you if he wraps it in enough constitutional language and delivers it with sufficient smugness. He thinks you will not notice what he actually did, how he did it, or who he did it for.

And he is counting on you being too fatigued, too distracted, or too beaten down by the relentless chaos of the Trump era to hold him accountable for one of the most intellectually insulting exercises of executive power this country has seen at the state level in recent memory.

He is wrong. And it is time to make that crystal clear.

To understand exactly how badly Governor Jared Polis has insulted the intelligence of his constituents, we need to start with the woman at the center of this disaster, because she deserves every word of scrutiny she gets. Meet Tina Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. That is not a glamorous title, but it is an important one — it is a public trust. The county clerk oversees elections, maintains records, and serves as a steward of one of the most sacred functions of a functioning democracy: the secure administration of your vote. Tina Peters was given that responsibility by the people of Mesa County, and what did she do with it? She used it as a prop in a MAGA fever dream.

In May 2021, Peters facilitated the unauthorized access of a Trump-connected operative named Conan Hayes to secure voting equipment in her county during a software update. She obtained a fake security badge for him by falsely identifying a local IT consultant named Gerald Wood as a county employee. While Hayes was inside, Peters disabled the security cameras — but apparently forgot she had her own cell phone in her hand, which she used to record the whole thing herself. If there is a more fitting metaphor for the spectacular self-own that is the MAGA election denial movement, it has not been written yet. The hard drive images and voting machine passwords captured that day were subsequently posted online and later displayed at a “cyber symposium” hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — a man who has made an entire post-pillow career out of helping Donald Trump lie about an election he lost.

Tina Peters is not a victim of her First Amendment rights being violated. She was not prosecuted for her beliefs. She was prosecuted for her actions.

The fallout was immediate and measurable. Mesa County had to spend over $1.4 million in taxpayer funds to replace and retest the compromised equipment — money that came out of the pockets of the very people Peters claimed she was fighting for. The county’s voting systems had to be decertified and replaced. Election workers had to rebuild trust with a public already being systematically lied to about the integrity of their ballots. Tina Peters did not expose anything. She blew a hole in the floor and then stood over it pointing at the damage she caused and calling it a revelation.

In August 2024, after a lengthy criminal trial in which Peters had every opportunity afforded to her under the American legal system, a Mesa County jury found her guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and three misdemeanor counts including first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with an order from the Secretary of State. That is seven convictions. The jury acquitted her on three additional counts — which is how the justice system is supposed to work. They did not rubber stamp the prosecution. They evaluated the evidence, deliberated, and delivered a sound determination.