DENVER — A civil servant who posted partial passwords for voting systems is no longer with the Colorado Department of State.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told Denver7 the civil servant was no longer with the department but could not say whether that person was fired.
“I can't comment right now on personnel issues,” said Griswold. “I think it is a very unfortunate situation that we do take very seriously, and a personnel investigation will be conducted by an outside party to look further into the matter after the election.”
The partial passwords were shared in a spreadsheet that anyone could download from the Colorado Secretary of State's website.
The information was on the website for months before being taken down last Thursday.
Griswold frequently describes Colorado’s elections as “the nation’s gold standard, due to security measures she says her office put in place.
But now, it’s Griswold who’s accused of being “reckless."
Colorado House Republicans are demanding Griswold resign.
“Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s reckless disregard for professional standards and consistent lack of transparency has threatened trust in our democratic system by causing doubt in the security of our election process," said House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese. “While I have the utmost trust in the integrity of our county clerks, who actually oversee the counting of votes, I have no trust that Secretary Griswold is capable of leading our election system. Enough of her incompetence; it is time for her to resign. The people of Colorado deserve better.”
Griswold told Denver7 on Wednesday that she will not resign.
“No, I'm not going to resign,” Griswold said. “A civil servant in the department made a serious mistake that we have actively taken action to remedy. Humans make mistakes. And that's why I've been so focused on adding more layers of security to our elections.”
Politics
Partial passwords to Colorado's voting systems posted online
Griswold confirmed partial passwords for voting systems were posted in a spreadsheet that anyone could download from the secretary of state’s website.
“This is cybersecurity 101,” said Indrajit Ray, a computer science professor at Colorado State University. “Nobody should write down clear text passwords in a file for everyone to read.”
Ray has studied election security for decades.
“It's not the end of the world, but it is a security breach and it should be investigated how this happened,” said Ray.
He says if hackers ever got the full passwords and physically accessed the voting system, they could take full control.
“You can prevent people from voting. You can change the ballot, you know, you can change whatever vote was cast, You can change what vote was being tabulated, anything you want to do,” said Ray.
Griswold says since only partial passwords were exposed, it did not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado’s elections.
"This does not pose an immediate security threat. I think it is a very unfortunate situation that we do take very seriously, and a personnel investigation will be conducted by an outside party to look further into the matter after the election,” said Griswold.
Griswold said Colorado’s elections have “layers of security.”
“You actually need two passwords and physical access to voting equipment to use those, to use the passwords for them to be worth anything,” said Griswold.
She says the partial passwords were posted by a civil servant.
“A civil servant who hid the tabs on that spreadsheet is no longer with the department,” said Griswold.
She says the partial passwords were online for months before her office was notified last Thursday.
Griswold said she could not say who notified her office.
“Given the nature of this investigation right now, I can't get into those details,” Griswold said.
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