COLORADO — An exchange between the Adams County Clerk Josh Zygielbaum and Christopher Beall, the Colorado Deputy Secretary of State took place on November 1 after a civil servant from the Secretary of State's office posted partial passwords to voting systems online.
Advocates of Accountability
District Attorney's Office investigating the Colorado Department of State
It happened during a phone call between the Secretary of State's Office and several county clerks. During the call, Beall admits the Secretary of State's office did not want to disclose that passwords to Colorado voting systems were mistakenly posted online to avoid a 'media storm.'
"It's really hard not answering media questions the way I actually want to," said Zygielbaum.
"Okay... I will tell you all I can do is be as transparent as I possibly can. We were not going to tell counties because we could not tell counties without it becoming the media storm it has become."
The Colorado GOP is demanding Secretary of State Jena Griswold resign.
Our news partners in Denver reached out to the Secretary of State's Office for comment, but have not heard back.
Update at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 16:
A representative from The Colorado Department of State has provided a statement to our newsroom regarding the call between the Department and Clerks on October 31. You can read the statement below.
"This short audio is from a call between the Department and the Clerks on October 31, that lasted around an hour, and is a small portion of what Deputy Secretary Beall and the Department staff on the call conveyed to the clerks.
The Office was clear on this call and in subsequent conversations that communicating about the disclosure without determining the full scope of the issue and without a concrete plan for technical and outreach strategy had a significant risk of fueling the major disinformation environment that surrounds elections.
As the Secretary has said, she is regretful for this error and that County Clerks learned about the disclosure from a source other than the Department. After investigating and conversations with both the Department of Homeland Security and Dominion Voting Systems, the Department determined that there was no immediate security threat with the BIOS password posting."
This is a developing story. News5 will continue to update this web story as we learn more.
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