December 21st 2024.
On Friday, prosecutors from the Denver District Attorney's Office announced that they will not be pressing criminal charges in connection to the accidental release of some voting system passwords by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. District Attorney Beth McCann stated that the release of the passwords, which were unintentionally posted on the secretary of state's website for several months in 2022, was not an attempt to influence the outcome of an election. Rather, it was simply an error that did not violate any laws.
An independent law firm hired by Secretary of State Jena Griswold's office had previously determined that the release of the passwords was indeed an accident. However, the review did find that the office had violated information security policies. The passwords were included in a hidden tab on a larger spreadsheet by a former staff member who had left the office in May 2023. When current staff members published the spreadsheet online a year later, they were unaware of the hidden tab.
In a statement released on the same day, Griswold's office confirmed McCann's findings and stated that they had fully cooperated with the Denver investigation. They declined to comment further. The investigation was initiated by McCann's office in November, shortly after the Colorado Republican Party announced in late October that they had discovered the spreadsheet with the hidden passwords, which were available for public download.
There is no evidence to suggest that the passwords were used to tamper with election results, and there is also no evidence that any election systems were compromised. In order for someone to alter the results, they would have needed additional passwords and physical access to monitored areas in county clerks' offices.
According to a 26-page report from McCann's office, the investigators interviewed several current and former state employees and also examined their laptops and email accounts. The report also mentions that numerous individuals and groups had submitted "sworn affidavits" requesting an investigation into the situation. However, none of these affidavits contained any new information or evidence of a crime, and none of them were from within Denver.
On October 24, the day the office became aware of the public accessibility of the passwords, there was an email exchange among the secretary of state's staff. The employees immediately took steps to remove the spreadsheet from the website after being informed of the situation. One employee, whose name was redacted from the report, responded to the news with a simple "Jesus."
The district attorney's office in El Paso County also received two affidavits alleging violations of state law and has expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Denver investigation. A spokesperson for the office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
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