(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office is in damage control after state Republicans revealed that the government leaked passwords to its voting systems.
Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman first revealed the password leak Tuesday morning, posting an affidavit sent from an apparent whistleblower whose name was redacted.
“On three occasions in 2024 … I have accessed through the Internet the Colorado Secretary of State website (www.coloradosos.gov) and ‘Voting Systems’ webpage and have used a link which is no longer available to that page, but which was previously available through at least 23 October 2024 to download a 563 KB Microsoft Excel file named ‘VotingSystemInventory.xlsx,’” the affidavit stated.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLORADO ELECTION PASSWORDS LEAKED & SYSTEM MAY BE COMPROMISED
According to an affidavit sent to the Republican Party of Colorado, CO Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, shared a file on her website that contained over 600 BIOS passwords for voting system pic.twitter.com/kypi9NMUxU— Hope Scheppelman (@HopeSchepp) October 29, 2024
According to that affidavid, the Microsoft Excel file included “Basic Input Output System” passwords for more than “700 individual voting components in 63 counties’ voting systems.”
Scheppelman’s disclosure promoted public outrage, and Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold responded by downplaying the issue.
According to Griswold, two passwords and physical access are needed to enter a Colorado voting system. Only one of those passwords was leaked online, she said.
“This is not a security threat. There are two passwords to get into any voting component, along with physical access,” she said to local news reporter Kyle Clark.
“We have layers of security, and out of just an abundance of caution, have staff in the field changing passwords, looking at access logs and looking at the entire situation and continuing our investigation.”
Griswold dodged Clark’s question about whether the state would have notified the public about the leaked passwords, had they not been told by Colorado’s GOP first. Griswold said her office was working with federal agencies to investigate the leak, and she hadn’t yet determined whether to tell the public about it.
Griswold said she has no plans to resign over the matter.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
