Judge hears lawsuit against CO foreign minister after password leak

DENVER — A Denver District judge heard arguments Monday in a lawsuit brought by the Libertarian Party of Colorado against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold after portions of passwords to components of the state’s election system were published online.

Last week, Griswold revealed that an employee had mistakenly inserted parts of voting system passwords into a spreadsheet that anyone could download from her office’s website. The public first became aware of the leak after the Colorado Republican Party issued a press release about it on Wednesday, nearly a week after Griswold said her office was informed of it on Thursday, Oct. 24.

The Libertarian Party of Colorado filed a lawsuit asking the court to order Griswold to withdraw from participating in Tuesday’s election, to immediately decommission all voting system equipment associated with the published passwords, the to order hand-counting of ballots in the affected districts and to repeal a temporary regulation that allows passwords to be changed. The party also wants Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser to conduct an investigation.

The hearing on the lawsuit began around 1:30 p.m. Monday and lasted until nearly 6 p.m. the night before Election Day.

It turned out that 46 counties had voting machines with passwords visible on a hidden tab. Thirty-four of these 46 districts had machines with passwords still active, while the other 12 districts had new passwords.

Griswold’s lawyers argued there was no factual or legal basis for granting what they called “unprecedented and extraordinary” relief. At one point, Griswold’s legal team said they believed the relief demanded by the Libertarian Party would cause chaos with Election Day just a day away.

During closing arguments, Griswold’s attorneys asked the judge to deny the plaintiff’s requested relief. Lawyers for the Libertarian Party said the affected machines should not be used in Tuesday’s election and continued to push for a hand count.

The judge concluded the hearing by saying: “The court will issue a written order in due course given the length of the hearing and the time.”