DENVER – As more than half of Colorado’s active registered voters have already cast a ballot in the 2024 election, Governor Jared Polis sought to reassure voters in an interview with Denver7 of the safety of Colorado’s voting systems in light of revelations that partial passwords were publicly leaked on the Secretary of State’s website.
“Thanks to the fact that we have several factors in our security, nothing was compromised. We have paper ballots in Colorado. Even if one of the candidates thinks that the counting didn’t go right, they can request a recount,” Polis told Denver7 morning anchor Anusha Roy. “I’m very confident in telling our fellow Coloradans that every ballot will be counted fairly and accurately.”
In late October, it was revealed that a spreadsheet of partial passwords to components of the state’s voting systems were published on the state’s website by a civil servant, in which Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold described to Denver7 as “a serious mistake.”
“This password alone doesn't get you access,” said Polis “You have to have the physical access in the badged videotaped area. So there was no access that was on the cameras, no tampering and so we’re able to reassure people that, thanks to the fact that we have several factors in our security, nothing was compromised.”
In light of the posted partial passwords, the state responded by updating voting system passwords with the help of additional “air and ground assets” in Colorado counties, Polis previously announced.
The Trump campaign had demanded Griswold’s office “identify the counties affected by the security breach, notify them, direct them to halt processing of mail ballots, and prepare to-rescan all ballots,” a campaign letter stated.
For Coloradans concerned about any potential cybersecurity attack during Tuesday’s election, Polis outlined efforts he said would protect the vote count.
“The clerk systems are not online. They're not connected to the internet where they can be hacked into. That's why we value this badged access, videotape access, you actually have to go to where the machine is. It can't be remotely accessed from somewhere else,” said Polis. “So that's one of the main precautions that is taken against, let's say, hackers overseas or or someone else, is that somebody would have to physically gain access to the room and obviously that's heavily protected.”
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As of Tuesday afternoon, 2,772,941 Coloradans returned ballots out of 4,045,182 active registered voters, according to data from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.
2,590,808 ballots were mailed with 182,133 votes cast in person, as of 2 p.m. on Election Day.
Polis on Monday issued an executive order directing Colorado National Guard cybersecurity experts to help monitor state networks to stop any cyber attack and to enhance election integration across different state agencies. The state’s national guard has helped with cybersecurity in the last 12 statewide elections.
As for what to expect in Colorado on Tuesday night, a political science expert told Denver7 we should see a “routine” election.
“In Colorado, we should expect, I think, a fairly routine, fairly quick election,” said Philip Chen, assistant professor of political science at the University of Denver. “Nationwide, I think it’s a wait-and-see. We don’t really know if there’s going to be a polling miss and how that polling miss will be correlated between states.”
Asked if there were any particular security concerns or threats, Polis on Tuesday focused on misinformation – particularly efforts from hostile countries.
“Today some warnings came down from the feds on propaganda from foreign powers around the election. I think what they’re trying to do – Iran, Russia – is to sow distrust in the system, whatever the outcome is,” said Polis, “They fundamentally don’t want Americans to trust it because that weakens us as a nation when we don’t trust our democratic institutions.”
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Coloradans have until 7 p.m. to drop off their ballot or must be in line by 7 p.m. to cast a vote in person as civil unrest has remained a concern across the country heading into the rest of the week.
"People are right to be concerned about that," said Chen. "We've seen an uptick in political violence, in misinformation, in the spread of conspiracy theories, and that has led to a much greater risk of political violence than we're used to seeing in U.S. elections."
Denver police have said the department is prepared for any kind of unrest.
“It's always important to be prepared, and so I am proud of law enforcement in Colorado, and the state is coordinating with local law enforcement to make sure that we're ready to keep the peace,” said Polis. “Certainly, it's a good night, and some people will be rejoicing, some will be sad, but I think…. just watch the results. You know, the privacy of your home, with your family, that's what I'm going to be doing tonight. That’s the safest thing to do.”
- Watch Governor Polis' interview with Denver7 anchor Anusha Roy in the video player below.
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