DENVER – The Colorado Secretary of State’s office on Thursday responded to former President Donald Trump’s campaign demands that the state stop the processing of mailed ballots in light of revelations that partial passwords of components of Colorado’s voting system were published online.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that the partial passwords were contained within a spreadsheet posted on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told Denver7 on Wednesday the civil servant who posted the partial passwords for the voting systems made “a serious mistake” and was no longer employed with the office, although she did not say if that person was fired.
“I can't comment right now on personnel issues,” Griswold told Denver7. “I think it is a very unfortunate situation that we do take very seriously, and a personnel investigation will be conducted by an outside party to look further into the matter after the election.
The Trump campaign on Thursday demanded the Secretary of State’s office “identify the counties affected by the security breach, notify them, direct them to halt processing of mail ballots, and prepare to re-scan all ballots,” a campaign letter stated.
"I think the state should be transparent about which counties are affected. Certainly, the county clerks need to know of those counties... With respect to whether you would need to re-scan, that depends on what the inspection shows," said Wayne Williams (R), who served as the Secretary of State from 2015 to 2019.
Also on Thursday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced the addition of resources, including “air and ground assets” along with other support to complete the password updates in Colorado counties.
Polis’ office said the goal was to finish updating voting system passwords by Thursday evening.
"I appreciate very much the fact that Governor's been willing to step in and help. I'm sure he would have been willing to step in and help last week as well," said Williams.
The Secretary of State's Office was notified about the leak and removed the partial passwords on October 24.
The agency released a statement about the leak on October 29.
"When you have information that indicates the election has risks and you don't immediately address those, that undermines that confidence. That's the place we're in at the present time."
Politics
Partial passwords to Colorado's voting systems posted online
Colorado Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall in a response wrote that “background-checked state cybersecurity experts” would join department staff in counties impacted to update voting system passwords “out of an abundance of caution.”
Beall’s letter reiterated there was “no immediate threat to the security of Colorado’s voting systems or the 2024 General Election” but Colorado House Republicans are calling on Griswold to step down from her office.
“Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s reckless disregard for professional standards and consistent lack of transparency has threatened trust in our democratic system by causing doubt in the security of our election process," said House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese. “While I have the utmost trust in the integrity of our county clerks, who actually oversee the counting of votes, I have no trust that Secretary Griswold is capable of leading our election system. Enough of her incompetence; it is time for her to resign. The people of Colorado deserve better.”
Griswold told Denver7 she will not resign.
“No, I'm not going to resign,” Griswold said. “A civil servant in the department made a serious mistake that we have actively taken action to remedy. Humans make mistakes. And that's why I've been so focused on adding more layers of security to our elections.”
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In conjunction with the updating of voting system passwords, Beall’s response to Colorado Republicans and the Trump campaign said “additional security checks” would be performed to ensure machines have not been altered, but those measures were not detailed.
“The Department determined that because Colorado’s voting systems are protected by layers of security and redundancies, no single error can compromise the integrity of the system. These measures are enshrined in statute and the Department’s election rules, including multiple layers of password protection, tightly controlled physical access to voting equipment, 24-hour daily video surveillance, among other measures. To reiterate, the security of our voting systems is not endangered,” Beall’s letter stated.
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