Colorado’s governor works to address leaked voting system passwords as Trump campaign faces criticism

Colorado’s Democratic governor said Thursday he is providing state-owned planes and vehicles to help with accidental changes to voting system passwords leaked on the state website.

The error stems from skepticism about voting systems, even though U.S. elections across the country remain fair and… reliable.

The passwords remained in an online spreadsheet for months, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Tuesday. Currently, local, state and federal agencies are working together to change the passwords by Thursday evening and are analyzing the logs to ensure no tampering occurred.

The Colorado County Clerks Association said in a statement that because Colorado’s voting systems have a number of safeguards in place and a recovery plan is already in place, “county clerks can confidently say that Colorado’s elections are secure.”

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign handlers sent a letter to Griswold expressing concern, following a similar letter from the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. Griswold responded in his letter Thursday evening, stating that because of multiple layers of security, “no single error can compromise the integrity of the system” and reiterating that the leak did not pose an “imminent threat.”

Griswold called Colorado the gold standard for election security, although the leaked spreadsheet is as follows: hiccups in 2022

Other voting security measures in Colorado include 24/7 surveillance, ID-protected access and multiple passwords that must be used in person and in secured areas where access is tracked. Colorado voters fill out paper ballots that are checked after the election.

The voting system “was built with multiple layers of security to protect against these types of events,” said Matt Crane, executive director of the association and a former county Republican Party official. “Every official takes this issue seriously and remains focused on ensuring the safe and accurate elections that Coloradans expect from us.”

According to a statement from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ office, those tasked with changing the hacked passwords work in pairs under the direct observation of local election officials.

“We want to make sure that all votes in this election and in all elections are counted fairly and accurately,” Polis said.

“Colorado has countless layers of safeguards to ensure voters’ voices are heard. I am grateful to the Governor for his support in quickly correcting this unfortunate error,” Griswold said.