The Colorado authorities inconsistently disclosed passwords associated with their election system infrastructure publicly.
The Colorado authorities inconsistently disclosed passwords associated with their election system infrastructure publicly.
The Colorado Department of State, which is in charge of safeguarding voting systems for an election marred by allegations of wrongdoing and manipulation, admitted to a blunder.
For an extended period, the department admitted to mistakenly hosting a publicly accessible spreadsheet on its website, concealing a tab with bits of passwords for its voting machines within.
Although the incident is undeniably humiliating and is intensifying allegations from the state's Republican party, the department affirmed in a declaration that it "does not pose an immediate danger to Colorado's elections' security, neither will it impact how ballots are tallied."
Colorado's NBC affiliate station 9NEWS revealed that Hope Scheppelman, the vice chair of the state's Republican party, brought the issue to light in a widespread email dispatched on Tuesday morning, involving an affidavit from an individual who claimed to have downloaded the spreadsheet and exposed the passwords by activating a button to unveil hidden tabs.
In its declaration, the Department of State clarified that there are two exclusive passwords for each of its voting machines, saved separately, and can only be utilized by a person physically managing the system. Moreover, voting machines are kept in secure zones that necessitate ID badges to gain access and are under constant 24/7 surveillance through video recording.
"As soon as the Department became aware of this, it took immediate action, and informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which monitors and safeguards the nation's critical infrastructure," the department stated, adding that "it is working to rectify this situation where necessary."
Colorado voters rely on paper ballots, guaranteeing a physical paper record that can verify the tabulated electronic results.
Regardless of the Department of State's affirmations that its voting systems remain unblemished and dependable ahead of the election, the Colorado Republican Party swiftly grasped the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt about "the numerous problems with Colorado's election system."
In a post from its main X account, the Colorado Republican party accused Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold of "leaking election passwords that weakened our CO elections with less than a week to go" and solicited supporters' help in raising $100,000 to sue Griswold.
The accusations emerged a few weeks after a Colorado judge sentenced former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters to nine years in prison for unlawfully obtaining voter information using a pilfered ID card, which she then shared with Republicans who propagated the false notion that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
Despite the blunder, the Colorado Department of State emphasized that they are Investing in advanced Technology and Tech solutions to enhance the security of their voting systems for the future elections. To mitigate the recent incident, they are collaborating with experts and implementing stricter protocols to prevent such incidents.