By admin 
PUEBLO — Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted of orchestrating a security breach of her county’s election system, was released Monday morning from a state prison, Colorado corrections officials said.
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Alondra Gonzalez, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, said officials won’t say when she was released or provide details about her whereabouts or plans upon release.
Peters, 70, has been imprisoned since 2024 after she snuck an outside election denier into the off-limits Mesa County Elections Division office so he could copy the hard drive from the county’s voting system.
Sentenced to nine years in October 2024, Gov. Jared Polis cut her sentence in half May 15 and ordered that she be released Monday. The decision set off a firestorm of national controversy with supporters of Peters and President Donald Trump cheering the release of a figure hailed by election conspiracy theorists as a hero. Democrats and elections officials, including some Colorado Republican clerks, viewed the commutation as an action that could embolden people who want to interfere with the coming midterm elections this year.
Early Monday morning, a handful of supporters and a group of reporters stood outside the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, hoping to catch a glimpse of Peters on the way out.
Standing atop a hill, with a clear view of the prison’s front door, Mack McClelland held a sign that read, “Tina Peters Mahalo for your sacrifice. Fight Fight Fight.”
McClelland, 69, said he arrived at 6 a.m. and was one of five Peters supporters outside the prison Monday morning, alongside a dozen reporters. He flew from Hawaii, where he lives, to Washington, D.C., for an event for America’s 250th celebration and when he heard about Peters’ release, he postponed his plans to head back to the Big Island.
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He said he didn’t feel Peters should have gone to prison and hoped she would see his sign as she left prison.
“She’s got integrity, in my opinion. She stuck to her guns,” said McClelland, a pilot and real estate broker with an American flag tucked into the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt.
“The justice system is totally out of whack, totally skewed,” he said. “There ain’t no justice. Depends what lawyer you got, how much money you got.”
What remains unknown is what parole conditions Peters will face over the next three years. Law enforcement officials and even the prosecutor of her case said they were in the dark as to what stipulations Peters will be required to follow. Typically, they would both provide input and receive feedback on the conditions of release but commutations do not follow the same protocols as typical parole cases.
Peters’ attorneys last month filed an appeal with the Colorado Supreme Court attempting to wipe her record clean. They argued that she was only carrying out her federal duties as an election official when she took measures to preserve election records.
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This is a developing story that may be updated.