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.
Speaking to Colorado Public Radio on Wednesday, Griswold said that the employee, a “civil servant,” now “no longer works” for her office after the incident. “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.
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.”
Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign sent a letter to Griswold to express concern, which followed a similar letter from the chairman of the Colorado GOP.
Griswold responded in a letter on Thursday evening, saying that because of the many security levels, “no single error can compromise the integrity of the system” and that the leak presents “no immediate threat.”
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, “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.”
“It’s bad. Let me emphasize that we have other precautions in place, but the fact that a serious breach occurred is troubling,” former Republican Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams told 9News.
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.
