DENVER — A judge has rejected a petition filed by the Libertarian Party of Colorado against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold after a leak of partial passwords associated with the state's voting system.
On Oct. 29, the Colorado Department of State confirmed that an employee mistakenly included partial passwords for voting systems in a spreadsheet that anyone could download from her office’s website. The Colorado Republican Party issued a release about this on Oct. 30. Their release came about a week after Griswold said her office was informed about the leak. It's not clear why her office did not immediately notify the public.
Colorado Republican Party Chair Dave Williams said a “whistleblower” informed the party about the partial passwords leak. Griswold declined to tell Denver7 who informed her office.
Griswold said the partial leak never posed an immediate threat to Colorado’s elections.
"Colorado's elections have layers of security, so you actually need two passwords and physical access to voting equipment to use those, to use the passwords for them to be worth anything,” Griswold told Denver7. “The two sets of passwords are held by different parties in different locations. And, of course, under Colorado law, voting equipment is stored in secure rooms that require I.D. badges that are secure I.D. badges. We have 24/7 video monitoring on voting equipment, strict chain of custody to access voting equipment, and of course, it’s a felony to access and compromise voting equipment in the state of Colorado."
On Friday, the Libertarian Party of Colorado filed the lawsuit against Griswold in Denver District Court.
Politics
Lawsuit filed against Colorado Secretary of State after partial passwords leak
“In allowing these passwords to be available to the public, the Secretary has breached her duty to ensure that Colorado’s upcoming General Election is fair and accurate,” their attorney, Gary Fielder, said in the lawsuit.
You can read the lawsuit in full below.
The party also asked the court to order Griswold to recuse herself from participating in Tuesday’s election, immediately decommission any voting system device associated with the published passwords, order ballots in affected counties to be hand counted, and overturn a temporary rule that allowed passwords to be changed.
“Based upon information and belief, any modifications, including the updating of any passwords to the subject voting machines and systems, herein described, creates a circumstance wherein the previous certifications of the voting systems involved are void,” the lawsuit reads.
In addition, they requested that Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser conduct an investigation.
A Denver district judge on Monday heard arguments from the Libertarian Party. During closing arguments, Griswold's lawyers asked the judge to deny the relief requested by the petitioner. Lawyers for the Libertarian Party asked that the impacted devices not be used in Tuesday's election and continued push for hand counting.
With her ruling on Tuesday, Denver District Court Judge Kandace Gerdes added that there was no evidence of compromised voting system components.
"In response to notice of the disclosed BIOS passwords, Respondents took down the subject worksheet and put into place a remediation protocol, after an investigation was conducted as to the disclosure of the BIOS passwords," the ruling reads. "The remediation protocol was implemented and within seven days, the BIOS passwords on the affected voting systems were changed and the affected equipment was examined and verified that it was not compromised."
You can read the full ruling from Judge Gerdes below.
James Wiley with the Libertarian Party of Colorado said they plan to appeal.
Secretary of State Griswold issued a statement after the ruling, which read:
"Colorado’s elections are safe due to the multilayered security measures we have in place. I am glad that the Denver District Court has recognized the actions we took to address the password disclosure. On this Election Day, I encourage Coloradans to make their voices heard."
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.
