Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is facing calls to resign after partial passwords connected to Colorado’s voting systems were placed on the Secretary of State’s website.

“The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office knew the passwords had been posted five days before they were changed on Tuesday,” FOX31 reported. The office is also under fire for not informing county clerks immediately of the problem.

“Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) knew her office had left voting system passwords exposed online but did not change the passwords until the Colorado GOP told the public about the security threat,” Colorado 9News reporter Kyle Clark posted on X.

“We took steps to pull the information down, immediately began investigating further, communicated with federal election security partners, and already had elections personnel in the field before we received the letter (from the Colorado Republican Party),” the Colorado SoS office stated. “The Department’s top priority was to investigate, fix anything that needed fixing, and then inform the public.”

The Colorado GOP called for Griswold’s resignation, saying in a statement Wednesday that the posted partial passwords could still compromise election results.

“She hasn’t owned that security breach, she hasn’t put into place provisions to make people more comfortable with the process and that undermines the integrity of our system and of our voting process,” said Rep. Rose Pugliese, minority leader of Colorado House Republicans. “I trust the county clerks throughout this state and the integrity of this process. People still need to come out and vote. They need to get their voices heard.”

Griswold said the employee who put the passwords on a hidden tab, allegedly by mistake, is no longer with the agency and that the posted password spreadsheet “does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado’s elections.”

Clark asked Griswold on Tuesday whether she intended to tell the public before the GOP called it out. She told him it hadn’t been decided because they were trying to take a “measured approach” and “gather good information.”

During his interview with Griswold on 9News, Clark pointed out that the leaked passwords were just the latest in a string of errors made by Griswold’s office “that undercut voter confidence in elections.”

“In 2022, your office sent out mailers to 30,000 noncitizens inviting them to vote,” he said. “They, of course, are not eligible to register to vote.”

“That same year, your office used Colorado’s ballot tracking system to send messages to specific Coloradans encouraging them to vote when in fact they had already voted, causing confusion that had to be cleaned up by the County Clerks, and now this leak of the voting system passwords,” the reporter continued.

Griswold was also behind the effort to keep former President Donald Trump off Colorado’s 2024 primary and general election ballots, arguing he was an “ineligible insurrectionist.” She  forcefully defended the process that led to his disqualification before the Supreme Court earlier this year.  In a unanimous decision in March, SCOTUS decided that Trump should be restored to the Colorado ballot.

“Given your office’s repeated errors that have damaged confidence in our elections, which you say is paramount, will you resign?” Clark asked.

“Absolutely not Kyle,” Griswold replied, going on to accuse the journalist of “leaving out crucial information,” such as her contention that her office sent out a postcard to the ineligible voters in 2022, telling them the previous messages urging them to vote were sent in error.

The Colorado County Clerks Association said the state’s clerks have been trained to employ safety protocols to work through such incidents.

“This is actually a scenario that we’ve worked through. So, we’re just all going through what we’ve trained on and making sure that we continue to have our security protocols in operation and move forward with making sure all of our elections stay secure,” Colorado County Clerks Association Vice President Carly Koppes said.

The Colorado Republican Party said it believes the partial passwords may have been posted on the site since August. Koppes says she’s confident voting systems across the state will still be secure.

“Even if you had that partial password, we still have all of the physical security aspects that will defend against you. We also have all of my security passwords that defend against you. And you just would not be able to use that partial password that was provided,” Koppes said.

Griswold said the posting of the passwords was a mistake.

“A civil servant made this error. Out of an abundance of caution, we have people in the field resetting passwords. But again, we don’t think this poses an immediate security threat,” Griswold said.

Griswold insisted that strong security measures were in place to protect the integrity of the election.

“And again we go back to those layers and layers of security, there are two passwords that are held by different parties and for voting equipment you need physical access to use those passwords,” she said.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, expressed his frustration on FOX31 on Wednesday night.

“We have expressed to the Secretary of State’s Office our frustration with their failure to notify us in a timely fashion,” Crane said. “With that being said, our highest priority right is to focus on conducting the safe and accurate election that all Coloradans expect.

The Secretary of State’s Office told FOX31 on Tuesday that many layers of security are built into Colorado elections, including two unique passwords for “every election equipment component,” and said the passwords are kept separately and by different parties.”

There have been some calls for Griswold to resign. However, Griswold said Wednesday that she will stay in office and help make sure this election is safe and secure.

The office spokesperson told Fox31 that “passwords can only be used with physical, in-person access to a voting system.”

“Under Colorado law, voting equipment must be stored in secure rooms that require a secure ID badge to access,” the spokesperson said. “That ID badge creates an access log that tracks who enters a secure area and when.”