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Breaking: Libertarian Party Sues Colorado Sec. of State Jena Griswold Over BIOS Passwords Scandal

This post was originally published on this site

 

This week, The Gateway Pundit reported that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s website had published approximately 600 BIOS passwords for the election equipment in 63 out of 64 counties in Colorado.  The illegal exposure of the passwords was first caught in August of this year but believed to have been published as early as June, before the state’s primary election.  And they weren’t removed until late October.

Kyle Clark of 9News interviewed Griswold Wednesday evening and questioned her about the severity of the ‘leak’ and the implications of publishing those passwords.  Of course, Griswold ducked and dodged the impact of her office’s actions, specifically, the consequences of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters case in which redacted, outdated passwords were published.  Griswold’s passwords were neither incomplete nor were all of them outdated.  However, Griswold attempted to call the BIOS passwords “partial” because they were 1 of 2 passwords used by the system:  one for the BIOS and one for the operating system.

Certified Ethical Hacker and former Voting Systems Test Lab tester Clay Parikh joined Badlands Daily to discuss the implications of the leak.

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According to a Press Release from Governor Jared Polis, Secretary Griswold stated:

“All of the passwords in affected counties have been changed. I want to thank Governor Polis for deploying extra state resources to help in this effort,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “Colorado has countless layers of security to ensure our elections are free and fair, and every eligible voter should know their ballot will be counted as cast.”

Ashe Epp of the Colorado Free Press mentioned the remarkable haste in wiping their hands clean of this situation:

This is a stunning declaration from the Executive Branch. The passwords were compromised for months, and there is no possibility that a proper forensic cyber investigation could have taken place to ensure Colorado voters that “every Coloradan can rest assured that their vote will be counted fairly and accurately.”

How did Department employees ensure that social engineering during the primary election wasn’t occurring? Did the investigation simply assume the initial posting was an accident? Were there any investigative steps to confirm it was an accident?

What about the log files? Did investigators audit the log files of all 600+ impacted devices in all 63 impacted counties? What about device actions that are not captured in the log files? Did investigators use the “Pause Election” feature on any of these devices to go in and change the password? According to former Elbert Clerk Dallas Schroeder, that action is not captured in the log files.

 

Colorado Libertarian Party Files Lawsuit

The Libertarian Party (LP) of Colorado has filed suit against Secretary Griswold, as well as her Deputy Secretary of State, Chris Beall.  Griswold was reportedly on maternity leave starting in August after giving birth.

The LP states in their petition that the passwords were located on “hidden sheets within [a] spreadsheet and were not encrypted or otherwise protected.”  With access to the BIOS passwords, one could “gain control over Colorado’s voting systems, which includes the ability to manipulate those systems and election results” and “allow that person to remove any trace of use by overwriting the system logs necessary for a subsequent audit,” the filing states.

Under Section 17 of Colorado Revised Statute 1-13-708(2) it states “Any person who knowingly publishes or causes to be published passwords or other confidential information relating to a voting system shall immediately have their authorized access revoked and is guilty of a Class 5 felony.”

According to the lawsuit, rather than taking action against Griswold, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall “issued an emergency, temporary, voting rule change to allow the Secretary to change the passwords.”  This would allow the Secretary’s office to make changes after the certification and just days before the election.  The LP argues that the Deputy Secretary does not have the authority to make rules and instead petitions that the machines with published passwords be taken out of use.

Until the publication was made public and consequently remedied on October 29, 2024, early voting had already begun and ballots had been scanned.  Former Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder, one of two clerks who made a forensic image prior to the “Trusted Build” that landed Tina Peters in prison for 8.5 years, exposed on Badlands Media’s Why We Vote podcast that the tabulators in his county were capable of publishing the results of those scanned ballots’ results prior to transferring them to the Election Management System for Election Day publishing.  Further, Schroeder, who is now an Elbert County Commissioner, also revealed that the system log files do not show this report every being run.

The LP’s lawsuit also states that:

Access to the voting system would allow the user to manipulate the data, change the totals, modify procedures, and otherwise make significant changes to how the system operates, which includes disabling restrictions against certain devices that can be plugged in, such as networking devices.

Given the violation, the “voting devices and systems to which the passwords were disclosed are no longer certified pursuant to the Help America Vote Act of 2002.” 

In 2021, Secretary Griswold took 41 voting machines out of service in Mesa County after Tina Peters was wrongly accused of leaking BIOS passwords and required the purchasing of new equipment at the county’s expense, according to the lawsuit.  The Secretary also found that “chain-of-custody of the components could not be confirmed, including whether those components were accessed and/or altered after May 25, 2021.”

These actions, given the publication of redacted, outdated BIOS passwords in just one single county resulted in the Colorado County Clerks Association supporting Griswold’s prohibition of Mesa County’s voting equipment.

According to the Claim for Relief, President Trump’s counsel has requested “‘a new Trusted Build’ be conducted, and an ‘immediate halt’ of ‘the processing of mail ballots received’ in preparation ‘to re-scan all mail ballots already scanned after the new Trusted Build and Logic and Accuracy Tests are completed.”

However, the LP does not believe this is sufficient.  They are requesting that:

  • the entirety of the Secretary of State’s Office, including Griswold, be recused from participating in the 2024 General Election
  • every piece of equipment with leaked passwords be decommissioned
  • the ballots submitted be hand-counted
  • void the temporary rule submitted by Deputy Secretary Beall
  • and the Colorado Attorney General conduct an investigation into the publishing of the BIOS passwords

Libertarian Party Sues Griswold by CannCon on Scribd

 

 

The post Breaking: Libertarian Party Sues Colorado Sec. of State Jena Griswold Over BIOS Passwords Scandal appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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