Colorado Libertarian Party loses bid for hand count over leaked voting-machine passwords

A Denver judge rejected the Colorado Libertarian Party’s request for the state to count the November election ballots by hand, ruling that the Secretary of State has already addressed the breach created by the leak of voting-machine passwords.

Denver District Judge Kandace Gerdes said in a Tuesday ruling that Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office has already verified that the voting equipment in the 34 counties affected by the Basic Input/Output System password breach was “not compromised.”

“[T]he Secretary of State substantially complied with correcting the BIOS password breach and has verified that no affected voting systems were compromised,” said Judge Gerdes in her 10-page order. “Thus any order requiring the Secretary of State to substantially comply with correcting the public disclosure of BIOS passwords is unnecessary.”

The Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit Friday after the state scrambled to change the passwords, which were posted from June 21 to Oct. 24 within a spreadsheet on the Secretary of State’s website, but only discovered last week.

Ms. Griswold’s office took down the spreadsheet, but did not inform the county clerks until the Colorado Republican Party exposed the leak in an Oct. 29 statement.

Ms. Griswold has said the passwords were posted mistakenly by a former employee. The Libertarian Party argued that the secretary should face charges, but Judge Gerdes said there was no evidence that the passwords were disclosed “knowingly.”

“The record before the Court lacks any evidence that the conduct related to the BIOS passwords on the Secretary of State’s website was done ‘knowingly,’” the judge said in her ruling. “Additionally, no witness testified, nor was evidence presented that the affected counties’ voting systems were compromised or altered even with the BIOS password disclosure.”

Judge Gerdes also described the disclosure as “an isolated example of oversight, contrasted with a systematic disregard for requirements.”

Libertarian Party Chairwoman Hannah Goodman said the party “expected this outcome, and we look forward to filing an appeal.”

Gary Fielder, attorney for the Libertarian Party, brought witnesses at Monday’s hearing who said the exposed passwords could be used by bad actors to give them wireless access to the machines, a scenario that the attorney general’s office dismissed as “fearmongering.”

The discovery of the exposed passwords on the precipice of Tuesday’s election spurred calls for the Democrat Griswold to resign, which she has rejected.