Jena Griswold, Colorado secretary of state, announces an investigation into voter fraud in Mesa County during a press conference at her Denver office on Oct. 24, 2024. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)
No criminal charges will be filed in connection with the inadvertent leak of voting systems passwords by a Colorado secretary of state’s office employee, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann announced Friday.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold disclosed in late October that a document posted to her office’s website included a hidden but accessible worksheet containing Basic Input Output System — or BIOS — passwords to election equipment in counties throughout the state.
Days later, McCann’s office formally launched an investigation into “whether the BIOS passwords were knowingly published on the website and if there was any official misconduct on the part of any (Colorado Department of State) employee,” according to a 26-page report released Friday afternoon.
“After an extensive investigation by prosecutors and investigators in my office, we have concluded that there were no criminal violations of the law regarding the publication of the voting machine passwords,” McCann said in a statement. “Based on everything we have learned, the passwords were published in error and not ‘knowingly,’ as required to prove a violation of C.R.S. 1-13-708(2), or ‘knowingly, arbitrarily or capriciously,’ as required to prove a violation of CRS 18-8-405(1).