Everyone’s been fearing election shenanigans. Those worst fears are coming true.
Because this huge voting machine breach just threw the 2024 election into utter chaos.
Colorado Secretary of State’s Password Leak Raises Security Concerns
In a troubling incident, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold left sensitive voting-machine passwords accessible on a publicly available spreadsheet posted to an official government website. The issue was only addressed after it garnered public attention.
On October 24, Griswold, who has been vocal about former President Donald Trump’s removal from the state’s ballot, learned of the password leak. However, her office took action only after the matter was highlighted by local media, as reported by 9News Denver.
The passwords were hidden in a tab of an Excel spreadsheet that was posted on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website. The issue came to light when Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman circulated an email blast that included an affidavit from an individual who discovered the hidden tab after downloading the spreadsheet.
In response to the situation, the Colorado Department of State issued a statement clarifying the potential impact of the leak. “The Colorado Department of State is aware that a spreadsheet located on the Department’s website improperly included a hidden tab including partial passwords to certain components of Colorado voting systems. This does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado’s elections, nor will it impact how ballots are counted,” the statement read.
The department assured that they took immediate action upon learning of the incident, notifying the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is tasked with monitoring the security of essential infrastructure. “The Department is working to remedy this situation where necessary,” the statement continued.
BREAKING: Colorado voting machine passwords were leaked and posted online for months by the Democrat Secretary of State's office. pic.twitter.com/2mZ9qe61Tg
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) October 30, 2024
Following the revelation, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced plans to deploy additional state resources to safeguard the voting machines against potential tampering. The governor outlined a strategy to involve state employees with cybersecurity and technology expertise to assist in updating the compromised passwords, with election officials overseeing the effort.
“We are deploying additional state resources to address this unfortunate leak. We want to resolve the current situation quickly by lending resources to help get the necessary passwords changed as quickly as possible with minimal impact on county clerk operation,” Polis stated.
While the leaked passwords did not pose an immediate security threat, access to them could allow unauthorized individuals to make changes to the voting machines, provided they had in-person access. The spreadsheet included detailed information on the machines used by each county clerk, such as serial numbers, county names, models, and vendors.
This incident comes against the backdrop of ongoing conspiracy theories perpetuated by Trump and his supporters, who have falsely claimed that voting machines were manipulated during the 2020 election to favor President Biden. However, no evidence supports these claims of manipulation.
Colorado, known for its deep-blue political leaning, is currently in the midst of early voting, with Trump anticipated to lose the state in the upcoming election against Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a related legal context, last year Griswold supported the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that barred Trump from the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which disqualifies individuals who have engaged in insurrection from holding office. However, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in March to restore Trump to the Colorado ballot, emphasizing that congressional authorization is necessary to restrict a candidate’s access to the ballot based on alleged violations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
This Supreme Court ruling also prevented similar disqualifications in Maine and Illinois, ensuring that Trump would remain on the ballot in all 50 states.
In response to the news, the Donald Trump campaign has asked Colorado’s Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, to put a full stop to ballot counting in counties that may have been impacted by this leak.
Trump campaign demands Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold order that counties affected by voting machine password leak halt ballot processing to update equipment. A spox says CO SOS has received letter "and will respond in due course." #copolitics pic.twitter.com/EzBMsq6yFH
— Ernest Lee Luning (@eluning) October 31, 2024
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
