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Colorado Deploys State Resources to Fix Password Leaks in Voting Systems • Colorado Newsline

Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday that he is using state resources to complete the process of securing voting systems in affected Colorado counties after it was revealed that partial passwords to the system were exposed in a document posted on a state elections website.

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In a news release, Polis' office said state employees “who have cybersecurity and technology skills and have undergone appropriate background checks and training” will be deployed across the state, using “air and ground assets” to engage with local ones Election officials will coordinate passwords and review access logs to ensure no systems have been compromised, the release said. An emergency rule passed Thursday by the Colorado Secretary of State authorizes those state employees to change passwords and “take action to investigate the voting system.”

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

“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 disclosed Tuesday that a document posted on her office's website contained a hidden but accessible spreadsheet containing Basic Input Output System – or BIOS – passwords for more than 700 voting system components in every Colorado county except Las Animas. Her office was reportedly alerted to the leak through an affidavit from an unnamed person and distributed in a mass email by the Colorado Republican Party this week.

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Griswold, a Democrat, says the leak “does not pose an imminent security threat to Colorado's elections,” a position echoed by county officials from both parties as well as independent election security experts. Duncan Buell, a computer scientist who researches voting systems and is chair emeritus of the computer science and engineering department at the University of South Carolina, said Wednesday that while the leak was “concerning,” he believed that “adequate safeguards were in place became”. that this is not a catastrophe.”

The Colorado County Clerks Association reiterated in an update Thursday that anyone in possession of the BIOS passwords and seeking to manipulate voting systems still requires “physical access to voting equipment, something strictly controlled by each county clerk and 24 hours a day.” is monitored”. seven days a week via video surveillance.”

“We have been preparing for this election for years, including responding to and resolving incidents,” CCCA President Molly Fitzpatrick, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder, said in a statement. “We are confident that our security protocols will protect all ballots and ensure that each ballot is counted according to each voter’s intent.”

Trump's campaign team reacts

In an Oct. 30 letter to Griswold, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign called on the secretary of state to take a series of actions to “immediately protect the integrity of Colorado's general election.”

The Trump campaign's demands include completing a new “trusted build” – the secure process by which software is installed and configured on local voting machines – in every affected county and halting all processing of mail-in ballots until such a process is complete .

“We recognize that these steps may be an inconvenience to your office and the affected counties,” attorney Scott Gessler wrote. “But this inconvenience is necessary because it is the only way to ensure that voting equipment in the 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 maintained .” unbroken.”

Gessler, who served a term as Colorado's secretary of state from 2011 to 2015, has represented Trump in several Colorado court cases in recent years and has a history of spreading false and exaggerated claims about elections.

In his unsuccessful bid to chair the Colorado Republican Party in 2021, Gessler repeated Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. During his time in office, he has been a vocal supporter of allegations of voter fraud, which election experts and law enforcement say are extremely rare. After the 2012 election, Gessler announced that he had referred 155 suspected voter fraud cases to local prosecutors across Colorado. Only four people were charged, and prosecutors were ultimately only able to secure one conviction.

Claims of widespread fraud in 2020 and other recent U.S. elections have been debunked by election officials, experts, media investigations, law enforcement and the courts. Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump has continued to deny the legitimacy of his 2020 defeat and has consistently dodged the question of whether he will accept the results of this year's election.

Matt Crane, executive director of the CCCA and a former Republican official in Arapahoe County, urged Coloradans Thursday to “cast your vote with confidence in our system.”

“It was built with many layers of security to protect against exactly these types of events,” Crane said. “Every employee takes this issue seriously and remains focused on delivering the secure and accurate elections that Coloradans expect from us.”

Mail-in ballots were sent to all eligible voters in Colorado beginning October 11th. It's too late to return ballots by mail, but voters can return them through a secure mailbox or vote in person by visiting a polling place.

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