Serious concerns are being raised about election integrity after the passwords for Colorado’s voting system were leaked online.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office acknowledged that the spreadsheet posted on its website contained passwords to the state’s voting system, Fox News reported.
However, the state’s election officials are trying to downplay the leak’s risk to voter integrity.
The Colorado Department of State claimed the leak “does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado’s elections, nor will it impact how ballots are counted.”
With the presidential election just days away, the state downplayed the significance of the error.
A statement from the department reads:
“The Colorado Department of State is aware that a spreadsheet located on the Department’s website improperly included a hidden tab including partial passwords to certain components of Colorado voting systems.
“This does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado’s elections, nor will it impact how ballots are counted,” the statement claimed.
The department said it “took immediate action as soon as it was aware of this and informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” which oversees security.
“The Department is working to remedy this situation where necessary,” the statement added.
However, it’s worrisome that the statement’s tone does not match the gravity of the situation.
The state office claims this isn’t an immediate threat to election integrity as passwords can only be used on physical machines.
“Under Colorado law, voting equipment must be stored in secure rooms that require a secure ID badge to access,” the state office said.
“That ID badge creates an access log that tracks who enters a secure area and when.
“Clerks are required to maintain restricted access to secure ballot areas, and may only share access information with background-checked individuals.
“No person may be present in a secure area unless they are authorized to do so or are supervised by an authorized and background-checked employee,” the office said.
In Colorado, all votes are cast on paper ballots and can be reviewed by the Risk Limiting Audit.
Even with these assurances, Dave Williams, Colorado Republican Party chairman, was rightly outraged by this situation.
Williams told Fox31 in a statement:
“We hear all the time in Colorado from Secretary Griswold and Governor Polis that we represent the ‘Gold Standard’ for election integrity, a model for the nation.
“One can only hope that by the Secretary of State posting our most sensitive passwords online to the world dispels that myth.”
The state’s Republican Party demands proof that the “exposed system” lives up to the “trusted build” standard in light of the leak.
Unfortunately, that trust will likely remain elusive with Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold still in place.
Griswold’s office knew about the leak and did nothing, which could be chalked up to incompetence.
However, as Libs of TikTok pointed out in a post on X, Griswold “is the same person who tried to remove Trump from the ballot.”
The Secretary of State fought to disenfranchise Trump’s voters at the Supreme Court.
“Just as Colorado cannot be forced to place on its presidential primary ballot a naturalized citizen, a minor, or someone twice elected to the presidency, it also should not be forced to include a candidate found by its courts to have violated his oath to support the Constitution by engaging in insurrection,” Griswold said.
Now Griswold is the one attempting to reassure those same voters that the leak won’t impact the election.
Republicans have called on Griswold to resign, but Griswold has said “absolutely not” to date, the Denver Gazette reported.
These people charged with state elections have no interest in ensuring they are free and fair.
So-called “election deniers” were maligned, but situations such as the one in Colorado prove that there are major problems with how votes are cast and counted throughout the U.S.
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