Colorado House GOP demand secretary of state resign over leaked voting system passwords

Republican members of the Colorado House are demanding that Secretary of State Jena Griswold resign after passwords to the state’s voting system were posted to the office’s website. 

Minority Leader Rose Pugliese said in a statement, "Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s reckless disregard for professional standards and consistent lack of transparency has threatened trust in our democratic system by causing doubt in the security of our election process. Her office has mailed postcards to 30,000 noncitizens illegally encouraging them to register to vote, falsely informed other voters that they had not voted when they already had, and now has disclosed election system passwords on the internet."

She added, "While I have the utmost trust in the integrity of our county clerks, who actually oversee the counting of votes, I have no trust that Secretary Griswold is capable of leading our election system. Enough of her incompetence; it is time for her to resign. The people of Colorado deserve better."

An Excel spreadsheet containing the passwords was posted to the Secretary of State’s website under a hidden tab, and viewers only needed to click "unhide" to view them. The passwords are used to configure the system settings. 

A spokesperson for the office said, "There are two unique passwords for every election equipment component, which are kept in separate places and held by different parties. Passwords can only be used with physical in-person access to a voting system."

Griswold said that the spreadsheet had been up on the website for several months before it was discovered, and did not inform county clerks about the passwords. 

"We did not decide not to disclose something to county clerks. We were actively investigating along with federal partners. We want to try to take as measured of approaches to situations as possible and gather good information. So, along those lines, we are still in an active investigation."

Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winter added, "The House Republicans are committed to ensuring accountability in our election processes. This recent breach highlights the critical need for public transparency and oversight to protect the integrity of our voting system and restore public trust. Coloradans deserve leaders who will safeguard our elections. We urge every voter to turn out and help us bring balance and responsible governance back to Colorado."