Trump's campaign team makes demands in light of the US Secretary of State's password leak in Colorado

Colorado leaders scrambled to improve security around the state's voting machine system after partial password leaks and vowed to quickly provide help so passwords can be changed.

Gov. Jared Polis announced the action Thursday afternoon to address “this unfortunate leak,” a day after Trump's campaign lawyers urged Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to take immediate action to secure the state's election.

On Tuesday, Griswold revealed that a spreadsheet posted publicly on her office's website contained a hidden tab that led to partial passwords – a layer in a security system that relies on multiple passwords and limited access – protecting Colorado's voting machines.

“We want to quickly resolve the current situation by providing resources to change the required passwords as quickly as possible without impacting the work of county clerks,” Polis said.

Griswold on Thursday quickly deployed state employees who had undergone background checks to work across the state. They were supposed to enter restricted-access areas in pairs to update passwords to voting equipment at county offices as local staffers looked on.

County officials secure voting machines behind closed doors. State public safety officials notified Polis of the leak Wednesday morning and he spoke with Griswold Wednesday afternoon, gubernatorial officials said. Teams deployed to the counties include state public safety, homeland security, information technology and Colorado State Patrol personnel. Federal police officers were also involved.

“Colorado has countless layers of security to ensure voters’ voices are heard,” Griswold said in a prepared statement. “I am grateful to the governor for his assistance in quickly correcting this unfortunate error.”

In a letter sent to Griswold on Wednesday, lawyers for former President Donald Trump's Republican campaign said disclosing the password violated state law and “undermines the integrity of our elections.” They called on Griswold to immediately identify the counties affected by the security breach, notify them, direct them to stop processing mail-in ballots and prepare to rescan all ballots.

“We recognize that these steps may be an inconvenience to your office and the affected counties. But this inconvenience is necessary because it is the only way to ensure that voting equipment in counties whose current BIOS passwords have been disclosed by your office is secure and that the chain of custody for that equipment required by Colorado law and regulations is unbroken. ” said the letter from Scott Gessler, a Republican attorney at Gessler Blue LLC who represents the Trump campaign. Gessler was Foreign Minister from 2011 to 2014.

The letter asked Griswold, a Democrat, to confirm by 10 a.m. Thursday that “you will take these steps.” Secretary of State spokesman Jack Todd confirmed receipt of the letter but did not respond to questions from The Denver Post about whether officials had taken or would take the requested action. State officials first learned of the breach Tuesday, and password changes began Tuesday, Todd said.