DENVER — A Denver district judge on Monday heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by the Libertarian Party of Colorado against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold after partial passwords of components of the state's voting system were published online.
Last week, Griswold revealed an employee mistakenly included partial passwords for voting systems in a spreadsheet anyone could download from her office’s website. The public first became aware of the leak after the Colorado Republican Party issued a release about it on Wednesday, nearly a week after Griswold said her office was informed about it on Thursday, Oct. 24.
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The Libertarian Party of Colorado filed a lawsuit asking 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. The party also wants Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser to conduct an investigation.
The hearing on the lawsuit started around 1:30 p.m. Monday and went until nearly 6 p.m. on the night before Election Day.
It was revealed that 46 counties had voting machines with passwords visible on a hidden tab. Thirty-four of those 46 counties had machines with passwords that were still active while the other 12 counties had new passwords.
Lawyers for Griswold argued there is no factual or legal basis to award what they call "unprecedented and extraordinary" relief. At one point, Griswold's legal team said they believe the relief that is being asked for by the Libertarian Party would cause chaos with Election Day a mere day away.
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During closing arguments, Griswold's lawyers asked the judge to deny the relief requested by the petitioner. Lawyers for the Libertarian Pary asked that the impacted devices not be used in Tuesday's election and continued push for hand counting.
The judge concluded the hearing by saying, "The court will, given the length of hearing and time, issue written order in due course."
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