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DENVER — Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has assured voters that the state’s voting machines are secure after changing out hundreds of publicly posted passwords, but the Libertarian Party of Colorado says that’s not good enough.
The party filed a lawsuit Friday against Ms. Griswold and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall over their handling of the password breach, demanding that the state decommission the compromised equipment and order a hand count of ballots in affected counties.
A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Monday afternoon in Denver District Court, according to Colorado Politics.
“The integrity of our electoral process is fundamental to the Republic, and the security of our voting systems is paramount,” said Libertarian Party executive director Jim Wiley in a statement. “The Colorado Secretary of State’s office should have acted swiftly to rectify this situation once it was aware of the issue. The delay in response, especially after the matter became public, raises significant concerns about the commitment to election security.”
More than 600 passwords to voting systems in 63 of the state’s 64 counties were contained within a spreadsheet posted on the secretary’s website, and had been publicly available since at least June, the lawsuit said.
The passwords were quietly removed Oct. 24 by the Secretary of State’s office, but Ms. Griswold did not contact clerks in the affected counties until Oct. 29, after the Colorado Republican Party publicized the breach.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, announced Friday that the passwords have been updated and that the leak “did not pose a security threat to Colorado’s elections.”
The disclosed passwords were “one of two passwords needed in combination to make changes to a voting system and can only be used with in-person physical access,” said the governor’s office in a statement.
Ms. Griswold has characterized the breach as a “serious mistake” made by a former employee, but the lawsuit said that she should be prosecuted for violating a 2022 state law making it a Class 5 felony to publish or cause to be published “passwords or other confidential information relating to a voting system.”
“Based upon information and belief, the Secretary violated her duty under Colorado law and committed a crime,” said the lawsuit.
The Trump campaign called in an Oct. 30 letter for an “immediate halt” to the processing of ballots and a major software rebuild to ensure the security of the machines. Mr. Beall responded by assuring the campaign the machines would undergo “additional security checks.”
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