Colorado’s top election official orders Mesa County to scrap voting equipment after passwords leak
Jena Griswold wrote in an order that her office "finds it cannot establish a verifiable chain of custody for any of the voting systems components in Mesa County"
- Credibility:
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Thursday ordered Mesa County elections officials to scrap their voting equipment following the leak of passwords last week that appear to have been captured in images taken without authorization during a software upgrade.
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Griswold wrote in her order that her office “finds it cannot establish a verifiable chain of custody for any of the voting systems components in Mesa County and cannot establish confidence in the integrity or security of those components.”
The Secretary of State’s Office and local prosecutors are investigating the passwords leak. Griswold has squarely blamed Mesa County and its clerk, Tina Peters, a Republican, for the security breach.
Griswold, speaking to reporters Thursday during a news conference at her office in downtown Denver, said that evidence shows Peters assisted with the breach.
Peters, in response, has said that she is being persecuted and attacked Griswold, a Democrat.
Peters has called into question the 2020 presidential election results, despite there being no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome. In recent days, Peters has been attending a conference in South Dakota held by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of President Donald Trump who has made baseless claims about last year’s election.
Griswold’s order said that Mesa County authorized a non-employee, Gerald Wood, to attend the May 25 software upgrade, called a “trusted build” update, in violation of state election rules. The order also says Peters’ office told the Secretary of State’s Office that the person was one of its employees.
Griswold said “you have to be an employee to attend these,” adding that she believes that Wood was responsible for taking the images of the passwords.
“The evidence suggests that the Mesa County Clerk’s Office directed Mesa County staff to turn off video surveillance of the voting equipment prior to the May 25 trusted build,” the order says. “The video surveillance cameras were not turned back on until August.”
State elections officials say the passwords leak did not affect any election results last year and won’t affect the upcoming November election.
Griswold said she’s confident no other counties’ equipment was affected by the breach. The trusted build updates happen in each county ahead of each election. The passwords that were leaked were specific to Mesa County.
Matt Crane, who leads the Colorado County Clerks Association, said “there is nothing heroic or honorable about what happened in Mesa County.”
Griswold said Mesa County will be responsible for the cost of replacing its election equipment. She believes there is enough time for the equipment to be replaced before the Nov. 2 election.
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