The office of Colorado’s Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold left voting system passwords accessible to the public on the state’s website for multiple months.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) knew her office had left voting system passwords exposed online but did not change the passwords until the Colorado GOP told the public about the security threat. @marshall9news reports for @nexton9news. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/oD48FqGu5J
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) October 31, 2024
Perhaps more egregiously, the passwords were only changed after the issue was made public, not after the issue was discovered.
Election experts say the passwords alone weren't enough to compromise the election system, but Griswold's handling of the issue and track record of errors in office may undermine voter confidence in elections. pic.twitter.com/CxklAf4nVZ
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) October 31, 2024
“On Tuesday morning, Colorado Republican Party Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman shared the hidden tab discovery in a mass email, along with an affidavit from someone who claims they had downloaded the Excel file from the Colorado Secretary of State’s website and discovered the hidden tab by simply clicking ‘unhide’. The name on the affidavit was blacked out in the Republican Party email,” 9News said Tuesday.
On her watch all the pass codes for the voting machines in Colorado were leaked to the world except one. Can you guess the one county that did not leak? Only the state wide head of elections has all the codes. We have our chief suspect. She has all the access and the motive. https://t.co/EP9JAt4gDK
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) October 31, 2024
The leaked passwords allegedly could not have been used to access the voting systems online, rather, someone with the passwords would need to physically access the devices in-person.
“There are two unique passwords for every election equipment component, which are kept in separate places and held by different parties. Passwords can only be used with physical in-person access to a voting system,” a spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said, according to 9News on Tuesday.
While the leak may not have compromised the integrity of the election, it serves as a harbinger of the state of U.S. elections in the modern era.