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10 31 24 Colo Sec of State Jena Griswold talks about voting system password leak
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Now on Colorado's Morning News, the Secretary of State's Office accidentally posting passwords for the state's voting system online, Secretary of State Jenna Griswold issuing a statement pointing out that it takes two passwords to get into a voting machine, as well as physical access to that machine. And joining us now in the KOA Common Spirit Health Hotline is Colorado's Secretary of State Jenna Griswold. Secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. I'll just ask you at the jump here. Will you resign your position? Oh, no, absolutely not. To be very clear, this does not pose an immediate security threat. When we discovered this accident, a civil servant accidentally had hidden tabs on a spreadsheet with partial passwords, we immediately alerted federal authorities, including CISA, which is the oversight authority to protect our critical infrastructure. They did not see it at the time as an immediate security threat. And with that, we've been making sure to take an abundance of caution to address the situation. Secretary Griswold, we had Assistant House Minority Leader Ty Winter on earlier this morning, who is also calling for your resignation. We asked him if he had a question for you because we knew we'd be having you on about our later. So this is what he asked. What I would like you to ask her is, is when is she going to start taking responsibility for these things, and when is she going to start and stop making excuses? That's the question that I would like you to ask her and quit putting it off on her staff because at the end of the day, she's the boss. She's the leader. What would be your response to that, and in addition to that, when it comes to the staffer, when was the staffer fired or let go, or what did the situation unveil with that? Well, first off, I think this just underlines the part of the nature of the Colorado Republican legislators' response. The representative could have very well picked up the phone and called me, but instead wants to funnel questions through you all. And I do take my job very seriously. At the end of the day, I want to underscore that the people in my office are doing an amazing job under intense scrutiny, and I never want anyone to make a mistake. But we have layers and layers and layers of security to make sure that any one mistake does not open up of vulnerability. Again, we do not have a security threat. We have layers of security, and instead of us having a conversation about the layers of security, we're having a conversation about the partisan witch hunts that Colorado Republicans continue to want to pursue. I am going to continue to defend our election system. And just to explain how our voting systems work is that you need two passwords, an in-person access to actually use the passwords. The passwords are held in separate places by different parties. On top of that, under Colorado law, I've actually strengthened the security of how voting equipment is stored. Voting equipment is behind secure ID badge access rooms. They have 24 severing cameras. People are tracked when they come in and go out. There's restricted access to secure ballot areas. There's a strict chain of custody, and it's a felony to accept video of voting equipment. To be very clear, again, we have no reason to believe that this is an immediate security threat to Colorado's election system. There's no doubt this is a partisan issue, Secretary Griswold. But it has to be asked, why does a mistake like this happen? How did it happen? And frankly, why does this continue to seem to happen while you're in office? This is not one of the first mistakes you've had. You've heard about and talked about the postcards being sent out for people to vote 30,000 or so for those that are non-citizens. Why is there something going in your office that you continually seem to run up against these mistakes and errors? No, I don't think there is. And to be very clear, after the postcard that you're referencing, which, again, Republicans in our state legislature has spun out into misinformation, Coloradans reelected me by 13 points. There is so much scrutiny on elections right now that things that otherwise, prior to 2016, wouldn't make your show, wouldn't make news, now make headlines because of the misinformation atmosphere. Again, we never want any mistakes to happen. With this exact scenario, we take it very seriously and out of an abundance of caution are changing the passwords. But what happened is a civil servant accidentally made the error. The employee responsible for having hidden chabs on a spreadsheet no longer works with the department. I do take this extremely seriously. We will be having an outside personnel investigation to look at the particulars of how this occurred. While taking this seriously, I want to, again, underscore there is no security, threat, or breach. And I think it's really unfortunate to have people like that representative stir this up into a partisan issue. This is a security issue. We immediately alerted federal oversight of our election infrastructure, who also said there is no imminent security threat, and we're addressing the situation out of an abundance of caution. Secretary Griswold, you say immediate, but we spoke with Matt Crane yesterday. He said the passwords have been posted online possibly since mid to late June. You were made aware of it a week ago on October 24th, but reportedly the passwords were not changed until it was made public Tuesday of this week. So why did it go unnoticed for so long and why did it take about five days to change the passwords? We were made aware at the end, very end of last week and immediately lost an investigation. We immediately called SISAF, which is the federal agency in charge of protecting critical infrastructure for the nation, including elections, and they told us immediately this is not a security threat, and that there was no need to change the passwords immediately. Our investigation was focused on figuring out the facts, figuring out counties affected security implications, and we actually did have someone already on the road to an affected county, but before this broke in the news. So again, be reassured there's no imminent security risk. This is an unfortunate situation. We never want anybody to make a mistake, but that's why we have redundancies in our security posture because humans do make mistakes. This password does not get you access to anything. You need physical access to use a password. There are two passwords held by two separate parties. The voting equipment and the voting components are behind a locked door that requires a secure ID. There's 24/7 cameras and of course, we vote on a piece of paper. We do audits after the fact. So if there is ever an issue, we can go back and recount those paper ballots. We have no evidence whatsoever that there is an issue, but out of an abundance of caution, we are resetting the passwords on voting equipment affected in the state. Secretary Griswold, let's set aside all that for the moment. I think what some of our listeners and probably even some people that share your political perspective, they have a hard time because I don't think they've ever heard you say the words, "I am accountable. This is my team, but it's my mistake because I'm the captain of the ship." And having said that, maybe that's what they want to hear. At the same time, you know already you've got a real focus, I hate to use the term target on your back, but you've made your job harder. You've made other county clerks' jobs harder because of the mistakes. Isn't there any accountability for this especially since you keep saying it's a partisan notion and nation with these things, but you continue to draw attention to yourself with these actions? So I'm not quite sure what the question is, but I -- I guess what they're saying are they're looking for you to stand up as the secretary of state to say even all those things can be true, that the elections are safe and secure because of the data you shared. Something like this still should not happen on my watch, I'm in charge, I'm accountable. It's my mistake, my bad, I apologize, it won't happen again. I'm not telling you what to say, but I think that's what listeners and people are looking for you to say in some form or fashion. Well, I have said that from the very beginning, but at the end of the day, I'm the secretary of state and the buck stops with me. Folks want to know how exactly this happened. This is my office, we take these issues very seriously. At the end of the day, what civil servants do is the responsibility lays with me, but folks also want to know what exactly happened. Secretaries of state do not have access to these passwords just like we do not have access to the statewide voter registration system to stop any appearance of impropriety or any concern that in a partisan elected secretary would have access to voting equipment or voter information of Colorado voters. So I want to make sure that we're transparent. I want to be very clear of what happened. We are being very clear on the level of threat, which is we do not have a serious threat. And of course, I take all responsibility for what the employees in my agency do. The one thing, you know, going back to the conversation you were having with the legislator is that we have over and over and over and over again asked legislators to better fund my office understanding that we have seen this massive attack on democracy and people are running just around the clock and we need more resources. That has been continually denied our request for more resources and hopefully we can have a real sensible conversation that yes, we need more resources in our office to make sure that everybody has what they need to run great elections. Secretary Griswold, why wasn't County clerks notified immediately on this matter? So again, as soon as we learned about it, we launched an investigation and worked with our federal partners who number one said, like we assess, this is not immediate security risk. There is not an immediate need to change partial passwords and we launched an investigation. And was this an this was an internal investigation, correct? Yes. So will this be thoroughly investigated by the Attorney General's office or any other agencies? What we are doing is having an outside personnel investigation to determine exactly what happened, but we know what happened. Everybody has been very forthcoming and again, I understand that we apologize if this happened and it should not have happened. But I really want to caution against is indicating that there is a security threat when there is not. We take this very seriously and outside personnel investigation will come in to again address and investigate what happened internally. But there is no immediate security threat. Employees have been very forthcoming with the accident that happened. But by themselves, an out of an abundance of caution, folks are in the field yesterday today are remediating the issue. Secretary of State, Jenigar Iswell, thank you. Hey, thank you. There's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Member FDIC. At Sprouts Farmers Market, we're all about fresh, healthy and delicious. Step into our bulk department to discover a world of options with hundreds of scoopable bulk bins and grab-and-go favorites. Give wholesome grains and spices to limited-time goodies like pumpkin apple cashews and butter toffee peanuts. Plus buying in bulk means you can get as much or as little as you like for your next recipe or snack attack. Visit your neighborhood Sprouts Farmers Market today or flavor fills every scoop. (music) [BLANK_AUDIO]