Colorado’s election breach exposes partisan secretary of state

Sensitive BIOS passwords for election tabulation computers in 63 of Colorado’s 64 counties were inadvertently leaked on the secretary of state’s website — buried in a hidden Excel spreadsheet tab with hundreds of passwords that anyone could unhide. The document, taken down last week, had been online for months.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office is investigating itself alongside federal CISA investigators. She insists it’s “not a serious threat to our elections,” and there’s “no evidence” of compromised equipment.

Thankfully, Colorado’s elections don’t appear compromised because physical access is required, a fact I’ve confirmed with the Colorado County Clerks Association’s Matt Crane, a Republican executive director. But, the leak marks a significant failure and a clear violation of state rules, fueling ongoing election skepticism.

Griswold hadn’t informed county clerks who manage these computers daily. Instead, the Colorado GOP found out and broke the news.

When asked on Denver’s 9News if she’d planned to disclose the breach herself, Griswold dodged: “Again, I am going to push back on your gotcha premise. We did not decide not to disclose something to county clerks.”

Pressed again, she claimed they “had not made that decision” while investigating with federal partners. Really?

A Democratic “voting rights” folk hero and MSNBC fixture on “saving democracy,” Griswold usually seeks the spotlight. She recently called a hasty press conference to highlight 12 intercepted fraudulent ballots — because the system largely worked, and she wanted credit.

Nine ballots were caught as designed, but three slipped through signature verification due to a human error by a single election judge, who was promptly reassigned.

Clerk Bobbie Gross, from the affected county, wasn’t pleased. “While we understand the Secretary of State’s desire to make public statements, this is our community and our investigation,” she said, warning against “tipping off those involved” and that “prematurely releasing details” could jeopardize accountability.

Let’s be clear: When issues arise in Republican strongholds such as Mesa County, where former Clerk Tina Peters was recently convicted in a 2021 election security breach, Griswold rushes to the cameras and shouts from the Rocky Mountaintops.

But when the breach is in her office, she’ll “wait and see”?

In 2021, when Mesa’s BIOS passwords were leaked, sparking the Peters investigation, Griswold’s office called a single leaked password “a serious breach of voting system security protocols.”

Yet on 9News, she denied her office’s leak was serious, claiming the Peters case was “distinct” and that security measures have improved.

Fair enough; Peters was sentenced to nine years behind bars. But if one leaked password is grave for one election official, shouldn’t it count for all of them?

Here’s the thing: This is far from Griswold’s only blunder. In 2022, her office sent voter registration postcards to 30,000 noncitizens — the second time since 2020. Griswold brushed it off as a “data glitch.”

That year, her office also used the state’s ballot-tracking system to urge voters who’d already cast ballots to vote again — forcing county clerks to scramble for damage control.

Griswold’s tenure has seen three deputy secretaries, four chiefs of staff, and three communications directors and legislative liaisons in six years — all after she replaced the nonpartisan leadership team with loyal Democrats upon taking over.

In 2020, she signed a settlement agreement with her former deputy secretary, complete with talking points and a gag order. In 2023, her office paid $120,000 to settle a racial discrimination claim with a career employee.

Since taking over the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, Griswold has become a key player in a George Soros-connected dark money network, funneling millions into Democratic campaigns nationwide — including her own.

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From leaked passwords to “data glitches,” Griswold’s partisanship and bungled oversight only deepen election skepticism and feed the very conspiracy theories she condemns. Griswold’s failures offer a national warning: true election integrity requires accountability, not partisanship. When partisan games trump accountability, trust in democracy suffers.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, twice-weekly columnist at the Denver Gazette, and longtime Denver talk radio host. Reach him online at JimmySengenberger.com or on X @SengCenter.