Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said that the worker who was responsible for a voting security breach that allowed passwords to be posted online is gone and that the incident shouldn’t shake residents’ confidence in the election.
“A civil servant accidentally made this error. Out of an abundance of caution, we have people in the field working to reset passwords and review access logs for affected counties,” she said. “The employee responsible for the hidden tabs on the spreadsheet no longer works with the department and we are doing everything that we can to, of course, assure the public and work with the counties.
“And, again, this is out of an abundance of caution. We do not believe there is a security threat to Colorado’s elections.”
It’s unclear if the employee was terminated or if the individual, who was not identified, resigned. The Epoch Times contacted the secretary’s office for comment but received no response by publication time.
Griswold said her office is now working to address the matter. She also claimed that “lies,” “conspiracies,” and “threats” against election workers have resulted in high turnover rates among county clerks who handle elections.
The passwords were left on a spreadsheet online for months, Griswold announced on Tuesday. She said local, state, and federal agencies were working together to change the passwords and analyze logs to ensure there hadn’t been any tampering.
The Colorado County Clerks Association said in a statement that because Colorado’s voting systems have layers of safeguards, and with the remediation plan already in motion, “county clerks can say with confidence that Colorado elections are secure.”
The letter from the Trump campaign’s law firm said that Griswold’s office needs to take steps to remedy the problem “because it’s the only way to guarantee” that elections systems in areas where counties’ passwords were posted online are secure.
Those tasked with changing the compromised passwords are working in pairs, under direct observation from local election officials, according to a statement from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’s office.
“We want to be able to provide assurances that all votes are counted fairly and accurately for this election and all elections,” Polis said.
Griswold said that “Colorado has countless layers of security to ensure voter’s voices are heard.”
“I’m thankful to the governor for his support to quickly resolve this unfortunate mistake,” she said.
Despite their assurances, a former Colorado secretary of state warned that the security incident constitutes a “serious breach.”
Colorado is not expected to be in play for Trump, according to political forecasters, including the Cook Political Report. The state was called in favor of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden by around 14 percentage points during the 2020 election, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won by about 5 points in 2016.
