DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Democrat governor said Thursday that he is providing state aircraft and vehicles to help with changing voting system passwords that were accidentally leaked on a state website . The mistake comes amid skepticism of voting systems, even though U.S.
election nationwide remain fair and reliable . The passwords were left on a spreadsheet online for months, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced on Tuesday. Now, local, state and federal agencies are working together to change the passwords by Thursday evening, and analyze logs to ensure there hasn’t been any tampering.
The Colorado County Clerks Association said in a statement that because Colorado's voting systems have layers of safeguards, and with the remediation plan already in motion, “county clerks can say with confidence that Colorado elections are secure." Former President Donald Trump’s campaign sent a letter to Griswold to express concern, which followed a similar letter from the chairman of the Colorado GOP. Griswold has called Colorado the gold standard for election security, though the leaked spreadsheet follows a hiccup in 2022.
Colorado's other voting security measures include around-the-clock surveillance, badge-guarded access, and multiple passwords that must be used in-person and in secured areas — the access to which is tracked. Colorado voters fill out paper ballots, which are audited after the election. The voting system was "built with many layers of security .