With the election days away, President Donald Trump’s campaign is pushing for heightened security following a password breach in Colorado.
CBS News reported that the passwords to voting systems statewide had been leaked back in June, and the Secretary of State only noticed that they were made public five months later. According to CBS News, Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold had learned of the password leak about a week ago but did not inform county clerks. A press release from the Colorado Republican Party that alerted the clerks.
In the press release shared by CBS News, Dave Williams who is chairman of the Colorado Republican party, wrote, “It’s shocking really. At best, even if the passwords were outdated, it represents significant incompetence and negligence, and it raises huge questions about password management and other basic security protocols at the highest levels within Griswold’s office.”
Griswold told CPR News during an interview that the employee responsible for the password leak is no longer working there, and an investigation is underway. Workers are also racing to change the exposed passwords.
Griswold also told CPR News that the leaked passwords do not negatively affect the elections as the passwords are only partial. She claimed that the leak was an accident, saying, “Ultimately, a civil servant made a serious mistake and we’re actively working to address it. Humans make mistakes.”
In response to the security breach, Trump’s campaign sent an emailed statement requesting the office to increase its election security. Just The News shared that the Trump campaign wrote, “The Secretary of State must immediately identify the counties affected by the security breach, notify them, direct them to halt processing of mail ballots, and prepare to re-scan all ballots.”
This is not the first election security issue that Griswold’s office has faced. According to Newsweek, just last week, election staff discovered dozens of fraudulent mailed ballots during a verification process highlighting the need for election security to be increased in Colorado.
The Trump campaign has urged Griswold to notify the affected counties because it “would not disrupt the voting process, as counties are not permitted to disclose results until 7:00 PM on Election Day.”
