The Denver district attorney’s office has initiated an investigation concerning the unauthorized disclosure of voting system passwords, which were inexplicably available on a state website for several months before being removed last month.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has described the incident as an oversight, assuring that it did not present an “immediate” risk to security. The Colorado County Clerks Association supported this statement, noting that the passwords constitute just one component of a comprehensive security framework and can only be utilized to access voting systems in designated secure and monitored areas.
Kailee Stiles, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, indicated that the Department of State is cooperating fully with the Denver District Attorney’s investigation. She expressed a positive outlook on the investigation, stating, “We welcome the additional transparency.”
Information regarding the progress of the investigation remains limited, as Matt Jablow, a representative of the Denver DA’s office, chose not to disclose further details.
The incident has ignited widespread skepticism regarding voting systems and has drawn criticism from the Colorado Republican Party. Nonetheless, election integrity continues to be upheld across the nation.
The compromised passwords were discovered in a hidden section of a spreadsheet inadvertently shared by a staff member on the Secretary of State’s website. Following the revelation of the leak, Governor Jared Polis and Secretary Griswold initiated a statewide campaign to update the passwords and investigate any potential tampering.
On election day, a request from the state’s Libertarian Party to have ballots counted manually due to the password leak was denied by a judge. Judge Kandace Gerdes determined that there was no evidence suggesting that the passwords had been exploited to manipulate or jeopardize voting equipment.
This ongoing situation illustrates the importance of stringent security measures in election processes, especially amid rising concerns over voting systems’ integrity.