On Gov Polis' granting clemency to Tina Peters sets a dangerous precedence for federal control of elections

 We have a challenge to save free and fair elections if we want to preserve democracy., Trump has other plans. Trump believes that his control over the election outcomes can be accomplished by empowering his supporters to control who gets to vote and who has the keys to tabulating the outcome of the vote across the nation. Governor Polis sets a dangerous precedent in granting clemency to Tina Peters just as Trump schemes to control the outcome of the 2026 November midterm elections. 

 Included in these Trump plans are to grab voter rolls information from states he and the GOP can use to suppress or promote the outcome, and to use federal forces to seize control of machines used by citizens to vote and the tabulation of results. This is no secret.  Trump made Tina Peters the test case and the cause celibre.  Polis just granted Trump a win and a template for how this power-preserving president thinks he can control the 2026 midterm outcome since the Colorado governor caved into Trump's demands to "free Tina Peters". Polis claimed Trump's threats did not influence his clemency grant, but it certainly appears that way and appearance counts in Trump's world.

The Colorado Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, had refused to turn over the voter information Trump had demanded and stood by the prosecution and outcome of the Peters case in the face of Trump's attempt to federalize elections, despite Constitutional provisions to the contrary. The fear is that Trump would use those rolls and the information provided to support or suppress voter turnout and results in the midterms of November 2026 to keep his control of Congress.  ​Trump administration again requests sensitive Colorado voter data, state declines | Colorado Newsline and then sued the state of Colorado.

Peters was found guilty by a jury that she gave those codes and access to a  MAGA volunteer to the voting tallying machine in defiance of state rules and state criminal law designed to. keep that from happening. She took her orders from Trump et al to "secure " the machines he issued via media. She did not take her orders from her oath to follow state laws and election procedure rules. Unlike the January 6 pardons of crimes committed under federal law, crimes committed under state laws are not subject to federal crime-related pardons.

The attempt by Trump to grab control of elections is no secret..and neither are the details of plans to do so on behalf of the GOP dominated by MAGA. Such actions Peters tried cannot go unpunished if we sincerely care about election integrity.  The issue is whether she was too harshly punished.  There was no issue about whether the jury trial and the sentencing guidelines the judge used were incorrect, or whether the findings in a trial that she committed the felony were procedurally wrong. She was found guilty of violating state laws by a correct jury, and Polis' actions did not change that fact. She had already served half of her 9 year sentence.

 At stake is the issue that the Trump argument for federal control over state voting laws is bogus, that the 2020 election was stolen. That is a false pretext. It has been 6 years, plenty of time,  for MAGA  to provide proof that it happened, and zero evidence has been found. That would have changed the outcome. Instead, this "stop the steal" pretext is not driven by a pious concern over vote integrity, but it is a strategy by Trump et al to have the party in power, his, to control the outcome of the vote count. .

 At issue is that Polis caved into threats by Trump et al to cut federal funding to federal programs for Colorado citizens if Peters were not freed.  Polis denied that it was why he "freed Peters", but it most certainly looks like it and sets a dangerous precedent that other states could also cave in and follow in the face of their resistance to the Trump power grab.

It is a warning to those of us who care about state control of elections as a way to counter a wannabe dictator from using underhanded tactics to thwart the outcome of elections he fears may not go his way.  

Felicia Muftic is a former Denver elections official

https://www.cpr.org/2026/05/15/tina-peters-sentence-shortened-jared-polis/  Excellent in-depth story and Polis' reasoning of why

​Trump administration again requests sensitive Colorado voter data, state declines | Colorado Newsline

Case is currently pending in federal court, with a decision awaited on a motion to dismiss filed by the state...per AI​

Trump threatened Colorado funding as ‘punishment’ oa  ver Tina Peters, judge finds - Democracy Docket   Snap funds defunding threatened

Beware of Novel Claims of 2020 Election Fraud | Brennan Center for Justice  On evidence of 2020 election fraud 

If the Trump regime tries destroy Colorado's vote integrity in 2026 a buzz saw awaits

Update 1/30/2026  FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump’s goal to weaken trust in election results | Georgia | The Guardian    Why now? FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump’s goal to weaken trust in election results | Georgia | The Guardian Why now? Here is why, as the British press tries to explain this to its readers. It is to undermine our faith in the integrity of our voting. My comment: This kind of action constitutes an attempt to create a pretext for federal takeover and control of elections by separate states. The beauty of having elections controlled separately by each of the 50 states is the protection it provides from just a tyrannical wannabe who wants to control who can vote and the outcome of the vote. The tyrant may succeed in a state or two, but not in the entire nation. It is a matter that may both suit an egomaniac power-mad tyrant, but it also serves to try to shape public opinion to accept the end of our ability to trust that our elections are free and fair, the fundamental undermining of democracy that is a government of, by, and for the people, regardless of whoever sits in the Oval Office. All voters of any affiliation must understand that there is an effort to make sure your voice expressed in a vote can be ignored and you no longer count in determining who governs you if this trust is broken and breaking the trust is what such actions like the Fulton raid is also about. Note: Felicia Muftic is a former Denver elections official who holds trust in the integrity of elections sacred.

Update 1/29/2026: Trump's obsession with the 2020 elections, an attempt to prove it was stolen 6 years later, and his FBI raid on the Fulton County, Georgia, voting records could be attributed to an out-of-control personality quirk of an egomaniac who never admits a loss, or worse. Trump looks like he has an obsession with rewriting history to fit a false narrative and to justify anti democratic power grabs.. In recent history, communists and fascists, from Hitler to Mao, have used this propaganda tactic.

What is most scary about this is that there is a concerted drive to undermine fair and free elections more easily by putting voter records kept separately by 50 states per the Constitutiion into the hands a federal control and to set up the acceptance of a FBI loyal only to the president to undertake such similar actions to do so in the future, including November 2026 and 2028. Political scientist Jason Stanley warned about this in his recent book.Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future: Stanley, Jason: 9781668056912: Amazon.com: Books

FBI searches Atlanta election office, chasing Trump 2020 vote fraud claims | Reuters

Continuing with original post:

The Trump regime is threatening to hurt Colorado voter integrity in November.  The Colorado Secretary of State is ready protect our vote from the Trump attempt to federalize voter counts and elections in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Expect Trump et al will try to keep Colorado's vote from being counted, as well as any blue states,  throwing the results of who gets the majority in Congress into chaos and dispute. They will meet a buzz saw if they try such tricks on Colorado. Colorado has a plan and backup plans. 

Threat of force won’t change Colorado secretary of state’s mind on voter rolls, mail-in ballots 

Trump's false pretense of such dirty tricks is still: the 2020 election was stolen because all of those illegals voted and mail-in votes are all a fraud, their propagandists and a delusional Trump claim.. In over 6 years, such attempts to prove these claims have failed. They think if they can get voters' personal information, they can prove their pretext, the Constitution provisions delegating elections to states be hanged. The DOJ has requested Colorado’s voter rolls, including driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, and is attempting to change the post office delivery terms of mail-in ballots to be counted by local officials.  There may be hope as a federal judge blocked the DOJ request for Oregon 1/27/26. Federal judge blocks Trump DOJ access to Oregon voter rolls

  This Trumpian scheme smells like a pretext to keep the House in GOP hands by throwing the 2026 midterms into chaos.  In the longterm, it is also a way to put the control of elections in the hands of the federal government over vote outcomes, voter participation, and election results.  If Trump and his administration can't win one way (the predictions are he will lose control of the House), they will find another way, and this one is ugly.  It will mean the end of fair and free elections that we can trust.