Colorado Republican official accused after voting system passwords are leaked to right-wing site

DENVER — Mesa County must replace its election equipment because it is no longer secure after an unauthorized person allegedly took photos of its passwords that were later posted online, the secretary of state’s office determined Thursday.

“We need to make sure that insecure, potentially compromised pieces of voting equipment are not being used in the state of Colorado,” Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said at a news conference.

Forty pieces of equipment, including a server, scanners and tablets, have been decertified under an order Griswold issued Thursday.

Her office believes a security breach occurred at the Mesa County clerk’s office on May 25 during an update of Dominion Voting Systems’ equipment. On Aug. 2, images were posted to the social media site Telegram and right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit. They included election equipment passwords from Mesa County, according to the secretary of state’s office.

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Griswold alleged Thursday that the office of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — a Republican — allowed Gerald Wood, who is not a state or county employee to attend the May 25 update, which is a violation of state election rules, and that Peters’ office falsely claimed Wood was an employee.

“Mesa County’s clerk and recorder allowed a security breach and, by all evidence at this point, assisted it,” Griswold alleged Thursday.

The secretary of state’s order also claims video surveillance of the voting equipment was turned off by the county clerk’s staff before the May 25 update and not turned back on until August. Turning off security cameras is “inconsistent” with how the clerk’s office usually functions, the order said.

[Amid a torrent of false claims about voting, election officials around the country fear for their own safety]

Peters has not complied with the secretary of state’s investigation this week, instead flying to South Dakota to speak at a conference focused on unbacked claims of hacking in the 2020 presidential race.

In remarks Thursday, Peters said she is an elected official who can be recalled by voters but cannot removed by the secretary of state.

“My job looks like it’s on the line but you know what? The people of Mesa County elected me, not the secretary of state,” Peters said.

“If those passwords were compromised, why can’t they just change them? How many of you have had to change your email password before? Is that a big deal? You just change it. We’re not in the middle of an election right now,” she said. “It’s not like some secret people came and did something nefarious.”

Griswold declined to comment Tuesday on whether Peters should resign but criticized the Mesa County clerk.

“I think it’s a shame,” Griswold said. “I think it’s just really horrible for the state of Colorado to have an elected elections official knowingly allow a breach of security and also spread disinformation.”

Peters said she made a request to the secretary of state’s office to make the the May 25 upgrade “be transparent” by allowing members of the public to watch. Griswold said no. Under state election rules, only a select few government employees can watch the software upgrades.

“It makes me think they are afraid of something,” the clerk told the South Dakota crowd. “They’re afraid that you’re going to find out something.”

Peters repeatedly referred to a search Tuesday — in which secretary of state’s office employees and Mesa County district attorney’s office employees investigated the election equipment, cameras and visitor logs — as a “raid.”

“This is not Nazi Germany. We cooperate together. We have bipartisan judges. Why couldn’t we have bipartisan judges in there in that room when they were raiding my office?” she told the crowd.

The Colorado County Clerks Association supports the decertification of Mesa County’s election equipment. Matt Crane, a former Republican Arapahoe County clerk and the group’s executive director, said the leak of equipment passwords “was a solo, intentional and selfish act.”

“We’ve heard people say this is a heroic act. To be clear, there was nothing heroic or honorable about what happened in Mesa County,” Crane said at Thursday’s news conference. “If you want to know who the true heroes are in Colorado elections, it’s the other 63 county clerk and recorders. Those men and women go to work every day to ensure accessible, fair and secure elections.”

The Mesa County district attorney’s office is also investigating the alleged security breach to determine if any crimes were committed. A Mesa County spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.