State elections officials announced an investigation into a western Colorado county on Monday after sensitive voting systems information, including secure passwords, was posted online.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold ordered Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to provide surveillance video and other documentation to help investigators determine whether chain-of-custody protocol was breached, resulting in the information’s public exposure on social media site Telegram on Aug. 2.
The passwords posted online were specific to individual hardware stations of the county’s voting system, Griswold’s office said in a statement. The breach “has not created an imminent direct security risk to Colorado’s elections,” and it did not occur during an election, the office confirmed.
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However, Griswold’s order said it is “clear” the information was “collected during the limited access trusted build installation of the Democracy Suite version 5.13 in Mesa County on May 25, 2021.” Democracy Suite is an election system software administered through Dominion machines.
“We have these security protocols in place for a reason,” Griswold said in an interview published Monday. “This is a very serious breach in chain-of-custody and security protocols.”
Peters must turn over text messages, voicemails, and emails associated with the inquiry by Thursday, including any communications between herself and other county officials or staff regarding Dominion machines or the trusted build installation in May per the order.
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Griswold said Peters’s failure to demonstrate proof with the chain of custody would result in decertified equipment.
