In Colorado, you may not be sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a child. But check on election results, and it’s a whole different ballgame.
Former Mesa County election clerk Tina Peters believed that election software had been tampered with during the 2020 election. As Mike Davis of the Article III Project noted in an opinion piece published in the Denver Post on Wednesday, “[S]he gave someone else’s election security credential to a man she trusted.”
“This individual took pictures of source codes, which should be open anyway, and published them,” Davis noted. “This action impacted no votes and occurred after the election. For that, 69-year-old Peters sits in the Larimer County jail, just a few months into the first part of her 9-year sentence.”
The average life expectancy for a person in the United States is a little over 77 years old — meaning she could die in prison. This, apparently, is fairness.
In his piece, Davis called for Gov. Jared Polis to grant clemency for Peters, noting that it was disproportionate in comparison to the sentence you would receive for other crimes. In addition to the possibility of clemency, the Department of Justice is looking into whether Colorado committed “lawfare” against Peters.
“Nearly a decade in prison. At 69 years old. That is staggering when compared to the treatment of someone who casts a vote illegally — such as an illegal immigrant — would receive,” Davis wrote in the Denver Post piece.
“Yet, Democrat Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Secretary of State Jena Griswold were effusive in their praise of the shocking sentence given by Mesa County District Judge Matthew Barrett. The prosecution was cloaked in ‘bipartisanship’ thanks to the participation of Republican (snake) Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubenstein.”
This is doubly problematic when you consider that Griswold refused to resign despite the fact that her office refused to notify county clerks of a security breach in the election system where the BIOS passwords to certain voting systems were posted online last year.
“Judge Barrett called Peters’ reputation ‘poor’ at her sentencing, which is rich coming from a local Colorado judge receiving below-average ratings from attorneys on his ‘judgment in the application of relevant law and rules,’” Davis continued.
Should Peters be pardoned and the judge responsible for her sentence censured?
“Of much more concern are Judge Barrett’s sentence and reasoning for the punishment. During the sentencing, Judge Barrett claimed that Peters had ‘preached lies.’ He also accused her of ‘undermin[ing]’ the democratic process. Peters, like many Americans, believes that the 2020 election was stolen. Her belief is not a crime. Her expression of it is not a crime. In fact, it’s her constitutional right. That view should have had no impact on her sentence.”
Yes, this is what you get in Colorado for being an election “denier.”
It’s worth noting that it’s a great deal harsher than the sentence you might get if you were a child sex offender in the state, according to Republican state Rep. Brandi Bradley, who noted in a post earlier this week that “70% of those convicted of sexually assaulting a child go straight to PROBATION. No prison. No justice” and that “[o]f the few that do go to prison, 73% are paroled — with an average sentence served of just 8 years.”
CLOSING STATEMENT: HB25-1073 – PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL PREDATORS
Last Thurs, the Democrats in the Colorado legislature made their position clear: they would rather protect predators than protect our children. HB25-1073, a bill that had the support of EVERY district… pic.twitter.com/jQeW4DEZrO
— Rep Brandi Bradley (@bradleyforco) March 17, 2025
But then, these are the upside-down priorities of our deep-blue states in 2025. Peters can be sentenced to practically a decade behind bars, but Jena Griswold stays in office, and child sex offenders stay out of prison — all thanks to one political party. You don’t even need to ask which one.
Perhaps Polis sees the light and grants clemency. If not, as the Daily Signal reported, the Department of Justice might force his hand, noting earlier this month it would “review” Peters’ conviction, something that Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said was “a naked, political attempt to threaten or intimidate either this Court or the attorneys that prosecuted this matter.”
“This, the DOJ suggests, is the pot calling the kettle black. Before President Donald Trump’s speech Friday at the Department of Justice, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche specifically mentioned the Peters case as an example of lawfare and the weaponization of the justice system that the department is investigating,” Al Perrotta wrote in the Daily Signal.
The DOJ’s filing noted that “in particular, whether the case was ‘oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.’”
“Reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’ case,” U.S. acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth said in the filing.
“These concerns relate to, among other things, the exceptionally lengthy sentence imposed relative to the conduct at issue.”
And, indeed, Perrotta found other things that will get you shorter sentences in Colorado: “By comparison, manslaughter in Colorado will get you two to six years in the slammer.”
Kill a person: serve two to six. Make an error in judgment about electoral auditing and have the “wrong” opinions: nine years in the slammer, maybe death behind bars. Meanwhile, people who commit actual voter fraud or who sexually assault children are getting slaps on the wrist.
Excellent priorities, Colorado.
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