Anyone can get the passwords that the Colorado Secretary of State’s workplace posted online to nationwide voting systems. The Colorado Republican Party, which uncovered the surveillance breach, is seeking responsibilities.
In an email the Colorado GOP sent on Tuesday, the company of Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold posted an Excel file with a “hidden” section of 600 credentials to voting methods in every state but one, a “hidden” section of 600 credentials. Griswold tried but failed to remove previous president Donald Trump from the vote. People could “unhide” the webpage and watch the passwords.  ,
On Wednesday, the Colorado GOP said it is seeking “legal relief in the courts” and calling on state lawmakers for an emergency audit, saying Griswold engaged in a” cover-up”. Colorado election is currently underway, according to the assistant’s website, with more than 1.27 million vote now cast.
” This does not present an immediate safety threat to Colorado’s votes, nor will it affect how votes are counted”, Griswold’s business claimed in a press release.
The minister leaked” BIOS” or” Basic Input/Output System” credentials, which “prevent unauthorized access when the system is booting”. This goes against state election regulations, which state that” civil servants at the Department of State may safely and confidentially keep all BIOS credentials for voting system parts.”
The Colorado GOP claimed that” this is not accurate for the BIOS” and that “every election technology element” requires two credentials.
We do not consider this to be a state-wide safety risk. This is not a safety danger”, Griswold claimed to KUSA.
Griswold first told the store her business only released “partial credentials”, but when pressed, she admitted it leaked full credentials. She claimed that” staff on the ground” regularly checks entry files and changes credentials.  ,
But state staff, people, and third-party sellers with physical access to voting methods may have gotten the credentials, according to a Colorado GOP in a discharge on Wednesday.
” Private passwords were passed on to those who had real access,” the statement read. That is all someone needs to know”, reads the transfer. ” It demands more than a media transfer”.
The group published an oath on Tuesday stating that an person had accessed the information several times from August to October, through an Excel document called” VotingSystemInventory” posted to the secretary’s site. This user chose “unhide” after downloading the file, which revealed pages of BIOS passwords for every county, with the exception of rural Las Animas County.  ,
An affidavit outlining the security breach. Courtesy of the Republican Party of Colorado
Seeking Accountability
On Tuesday, the Colorado GOP sent an email outlining the problem. It said an “unnamed official” had “discretely removed” the publicly available passwords on Oct. 24. The passwords were “available for public consumption”, and the file was online “at least since August”.
” We hear all the time in Colorado from Secretary Griswold and Governor]Jared ] Polis that we represent the’ Gold Standard’ for election integrity, a model for the nation”, said Dave Williams, Colorado Republican Party chairman, in the release. One can only hope that the Secretary of State’s posting of our most sensitive passwords online to the world dispels that myth.
The email included a letter the party sent Griswold’s office on Tuesday, demanding she respond to its questions within 24 hours.
” It goes without saying how significant this is”, reads the letter. ” We can only imagine that, since the discovery last week, you and your staff have been working tirelessly to remedy these vulnerabilities”.
The Colorado GOP asked Griswold to confirm the following: that election systems were not “accessed physically or remotely by any unauthorized person”, that “passwords have since been changed or were otherwise not current at any point while made public”, that new passwords meet “best practices” for security, that systems are on the latest software, and that systems meet standards for a” trusted build”, i. e., a secure system. Additionally, the party requested a list of steps and estimated completion dates for fixing vulnerabilities.  ,
We are confident that you are aware of the significance of making these “skeleton key” passwords available to everyone, the party wrote. We fully anticipate that you will gladly and honestly provide us with all that we are asking as a result.
If Griswold fails to provide adequate assurances, the party said it is prepared to request that county officials “decertify any election machines with a password on the released list” and require that the secretary” secure the elections, as required by law.”
In her statement from yesterday, Griswold’s office claimed that voting systems are kept in secure locations under surveillance and that access is subject to” chain of custody” requirements. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA ), which is billed as the federal government’s online censorship hub, was the subject of a report from the office to the Department of Homeland Security.  ,
The secretary’s office claimed it is “working to remedy this situation where necessary”, but did not go into specifics.
The Colorado GOP responded on Wednesday to Griswold’s release and appearances in local media, raising several concerns, including the fact that “numerous individuals” unauthorized for BIOS access have physical access to voting systems.
How can she assure the public that none of these hundreds or thousands of people have used the BIOS for that long period of time? the party wrote.
Griswold recently held a press conference about voter fraud in Mesa County, according to KUSA. There, she asserted that there was” no reason to believe that there are any security breaches or compromises in the state of Colorado.”
The Colorado GOP and Griswold’s office contacted The Federalist, but the publication did not receive a response.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer who writes about the integrity of elections. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan was born and raised in rural Michigan, but he now resides in Central Oregon.
