Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, has faced backlash over her office sharing a spreadsheet online that contained voting system passwords. Griswold previously attempted to have former President Donald Trump removed from the 2024 ballot over claims that Trump engaged in an insurrection after the 2020 presidential election.
According to 9 News, Colorado Republican Party Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman shared an affidavit from an individual who said they downloaded the Excel spreadsheet file from the secretary of state’s website and found that voting system passwords were included in a hidden tab on the secretary’s website. The affidavit noted that the passwords could be viewed by clicking the “unhide” option online.
In a statement to 9 News, a Colorado Secretary of State’s Office spokesperson said, “The Department is working to remedy this situation where necessary.” The spokesperson added, “The Department took immediate action as soon as it was aware of this and informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which closely monitors and protects the county’s essential security infrastructure.”
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According to 9 News, the passwords that were included in the online spreadsheet are used to configure system settings for voting machines.
A Colorado Secretary of State’s Office spokesperson told 9 News that “every election equipment component” requires “two unique passwords” and that the passwords are stored in different places. The spokesperson added that the passwords can only be used if an individual has “physical in-person access” to one of the state’s voting systems.
Addressing the recent password incident, Griswold told 9 News, “To be very clear, we do not see this as a full security threat to the state. This is not a security threat. There are two passwords to get into any voting component, along with physical access.”
Griswold added, “We have layers of security, and out of just an abundance of caution, have staff in the field changing passwords, looking at access logs and looking at the entire situation and continuing our investigation.”
According to 9 News, Griswold confirmed that the spreadsheet containing the voting system passwords was on the state’s website for multiple months before being discovered. The outlet also reported that the secretary of state did not notify county clerks regarding the password issue.
Following news of the voting system password leak, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams told Fox 31, “We hear all the time in Colorado from Secretary Griswold and Governor Polis that we represent the ‘Gold Standard’ for election integrity, a model for the nation. One can only hope that by the Secretary of State posting our most sensitive passwords online to the world dispels that myth.”
