A Colorado appeals court ruled Thursday that former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters should be resentenced on charges related to unauthorized access to voting equipment following the 2020 election.

Peters is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2024 on multiple state charges, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with secretary of state requirements.

The charges stemmed from a 2021 incident in which Peters allowed an unauthorized person to access the county's Dominion voting machines during a software update. Peters used the security badge of a local man she pretended to hire to grant access to an associate of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who made a copy of the election computer server. Sensitive information from the machines, including confidential voting system passwords, later appeared on social media and a conservative website.

The Colorado Court of Appeals determined that the sentencing judge should not have considered Peters' continued promotion of election fraud theories when imposing the original sentence. The case has been sent back to a lower court for a new sentencing hearing.

Peters' case has drawn significant political attention. President Donald Trump has pressured Colorado to release her and issued a symbolic presidential pardon, though state officials maintain it does not apply to her state convictions. Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, has indicated he is considering clemency, calling her sentence "unusual and harsh" for a first-time, non-violent offender.

Peters' defense attorneys argued she only wanted to preserve election data and investigate potential security breaches, while prosecutors characterized her actions as a deliberate scheme to find evidence supporting false claims of election fraud.