Governor Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold have announced the deployment of additional state resources to enhance election security in Colorado. This comes at a time whenelection officials in the state have been facing a challenging week.
Approximately one week before the presidential election, Secretary of State Griswold made an announcement stating that there was an issue with a spreadsheet on the department’s website. It was discovered that a hidden tab in the spreadsheet contained partial passwords for specific Colorado voting machines. This incident affected eight machines in El Paso County.
Governor Polis has recently announced that the executive branch will be providing the Secretary of State with additional resources, including more human capital, air and ground assets, and other forms of support. The aim of this assistance is to facilitate the completion of necessary changes to passwords that have been affected and to thoroughly review logins in order to ensure that no tampering has taken place.
The Secretary of State has announced that state employees who have received cybersecurity training and passed background checks will be given special authority. These employees will work in pairs to access secured areas and update the passwords for election equipment. The objective is to complete all necessary updates and changes by the evening of November 4, 2024.
“We are deploying additional state resources to address this unfortunate leak. We want to resolve the current situation quickly by lending resources to help get the necessary passwords changed as quickly as possible with minimal impact on county clerk operations. We are dedicated to process improvements to instill confidence in our elections. We want to be able to provide assurances that all votes are counted fairly and accurately for this election and all elections, and are grateful for the work of the county clerks for overseeing this process with the state’s support.”
Colorado Governor, Jared Polis
“Colorado has countless layers of security to ensure voter’s voices are heard. I’m thankful to the Governor for his support to quickly resolve this unfortunate mistake.”
Colorado Secretary of State, Jena Griswold
If you notice any suspicious activity or encounter instances of election intimidation near a polling site, it is important to report it promptly. You can easily report such incidents to the CIAC by filling out their online Community Member Suspicious Activity Report Form.