A mistake at the secretary of state’s office that I’ve seen sensitive passwords posted online shouldn’t shake voters’ confidence, says Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

The Secretary of State’s office said the information, which appeared in a hidden tab online, contained only half of the required passwords and would not be enough to access sensitive voter systems.

Griswold said the mistake was made by a “public servant” in the Secretary of State’s Office, who no longer works there.

“Ultimately, a public servant made a serious mistake, and we are actively working to fix it,” Griswold said. “People make mistakes.”

Griswold spoke with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner about the fallout from the news and what’s next.

Editor’s note: This interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Ryan Warner: Your office says there is no threat to election security because these passwords were online, that there are other security measures in place. But an erosion of people’s confidence?

Jena Griswold: Well, I think situations like this are exactly why we have so many layers of security behind the Colorado election, and it’s important to be very clear about the situation.

A spreadsheet located on the department’s website was incorrectly posted and had a hidden tab that included partial passwords for certain components of voting equipment in Colorado. Now, we don’t think there’s an immediate threat to the Colorado election, in part because partial passwords don’t get you anywhere. Two unique passwords are required for each component of the electoral equipment. Physical access is required. And under Colorado law, voting equipment is stored in secure rooms that require secure ID badges. There are video cameras 24/7. There is restricted access to secure voting areas, strict chain of custody and accessing voting equipment without authorization is an offence.

Warner: Say a spreadsheet was posted incorrectly. Who is responsible for this and what does responsibility look like to you?

Griswold: A civil servant accidentally made this error. Out of an abundance of caution, we have people on the ground working to reset passwords and review access logs for the affected counties. The employee responsible for the hidden tabs on the spreadsheet is no longer with the department, and we are doing everything we can to ensure the public, of course, and work with the counties. And again, this is out of an abundance of caution. We do not believe there is a threat to the Colorado election.

Warner: There are Republicans in the legislature as well as GOP Congresswoman Lauren Bobert calling for your resignation. You told 9News you won’t resign. Why don’t they rise to this level?

Griswold: Well, the (state) House Republicans and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert are the same people who have been spreading conspiracies and lies about our election systems over and over and over again.

Finally, a public servant made a serious mistake and we are actively working to fix it. People make mistakes. That’s exactly why we’ve passed major legislation to add layers of security to our election process and ensure that no mistakes put our voting systems at risk. Since I have been in office, I have faced violent threats. I have faced conspiracy theories from elected Republicans in this state and have not been deterred by any of their efforts and will continue to do my job.

Warner: Is there a model where you wouldn’t have this job?

Griswold: Absolutely not. I take my job very seriously. We take the administration of elections very seriously. At the end of the day, I think it’s very important to point out that, overall, the people in my office did a very good job in a difficult situation. Because of lies, conspiracies, threats, we have 38 percent new county clerks in the state of Colorado. The Legislature has repeatedly denied increased funding for my office. People are working around the clock to organize elections and frankly, we have fulfilled ourselves. Even with all the conspiracy lies, we see in previous 2020 elections, over 98 percent of Coloradans across the political spectrum choose to use their mail-in ballots. We have a remarkably large amount of confidence. Over the summer, Colorado was tied for number one in trust in our polls. Situations happen during elections. There are 64 counties. We want everything to go very, very well. And God forbid, we never want any of our employees to make a mistake. But with elections, that’s how you approach it.

Warner: And just to be clear, this came to attention because of the GOP press release and came to your office, the state GOP?

Griswold: No, that’s not right.

Warner: How did that come to your attention?

Griswold: I found out about it late last week. We immediately contacted our federal partners and then began the investigation.

Warner: Did you inform the officials as soon as you could?

Griswold: We ended up launching an investigation, and until it was public, we hadn’t informed the officials at that time. Later I alerted the clerks. We work with each county. We wanted to be responsible in our information gathering and continued that investigation.

Warner: The Colorado Legislature passed a law making it a felony to leak passwords. How do you know it was an accident?

Griswold: From our initial investigation. It sure looks like an accident. I want to step back and say that secretaries of state, secretaries-elect do not have access to these passwords. And it’s the same with the nationwide voter registration system.

This information is held by public officials. These are the public servants who have been here through different administrations under Scott Gessler, under Wayne Williams. That being said, this was a mistake, it is an error, and we take it very seriously.

Warner: Are you throwing civil servants under the bus here? I don’t hear you saying, “I’m Jenna Griswold. I am secretary of state. The buck stops with me.

Griswold: You ask me how this happened, and I’ll tell you how it happened. I myself have not hidden passwords on a spreadsheet, and of course I take responsibility. I told this to other reporters who asked me this directly. We take this whole scenario very seriously.

Again, this is not an immediate security threat, and I think it’s very important to be measured in a response because there’s a lot going on here in the state and across the United States of America with this election. There have been increased threats of violence for several years now. We want to be very measured to make sure we have good information out there,

Warner: And I want to point out that you’ve been the subject of numerous threats, and indeed the party that helped bring this to the public’s attention, the Republican Party from the top of the ticket down, has also been spreading misinformation about the election. . and election results. They are asking for an independent audit, some sort of review of what happened. Would you be welcome?

Griswold: Actually, we’re already looking into that. We have no reason to believe that the partial passwords were posted with malicious intent. That said, a staff investigation will be conducted by an outside party to look into the details of how this happened and will continue to address it further.