The One Conviction Became a Credential
The one person convicted of actually tampering with voting equipment was pardoned, called a Patriot, and recruited as an elections consultant — by the same president who now calls an uncounted election a sham.
In January, the president granted Tina Peters a full pardon and put quotation marks around the word "crime." [1]
Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections. — Donald Trump
He called her a Patriot. Peters was the former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado — the official who ran its elections. In 2021 the county's secure voting equipment was breached, and she was convicted on several felony counts and sentenced to nine years. [1] She is the one conviction this fight has produced for actually tampering with voting equipment. Every other fraud claim of the past two years remains an allegation; hers is a verdict. By August the record had become a credential. Clint Curtis, the registrar in California's Shasta County — the official who counts its votes — announced a plan to hire Peters as an elections consultant. [2] No hiring has happened. Senator Alex Padilla demanded the plan stop, and California's top election official called it "troubling." [2] Curtis denied the accusations against him.
Everything the old staff accused me of is a lie, and we will be able to prove it in court. — Clint Curtis
Mercy was bipartisan. Colorado's governor, the Democrat Jared Polis, also sought her release, calling nine years harsh for a woman her age. The state's attorney general, Phil Weiser, argued the opposite: freeing her would undermine public trust. [1]
We balance that in a way that makes sure that they can spend their last few years at home. — Jared Polis
Both parties offered mercy. Only one reclassified the crime. Polis questioned whether the sentence fit; the president said there had been no crime at all. Weiser went further, filing suit alleging the administration retaliated against Colorado for keeping Peters imprisoned, naming the relocation of Space Command — the military command headquarters — out of the state as one instrument. That remains an allegation, not a finding. [1] Then October. On the 29th, five days before the vote, with no ballots counted, the same voice made the position explicit. [3]
This election is a total sham and a travesty. — Donald Trump
In January, a Patriot who demanded honest elections was a felon, and her crime came in quotation marks. In October, an election with no ballots yet counted was a sham and a travesty.
