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Denver DA to investigate voter system passwords breach; Denver voters reject sales tax for affordable housing Jackie Sedley
Denver DA to investigate voter system passwords breach
Denver’s district attorney has launched an investigation into a voter systems password breach.
The breach made headlines a week or so before the election, when a 2020 election denier discovered a spreadsheet on the secretary of state’s website that contained passwords to voting equipment.
The DA’s office has yet to reveal additional details of the probe, beyond confirming an open investigation.
While Secretary of State Jenna Griswold took the brunt of criticism for the leak – the Libertarian party attempted to sue her, and many Colorado Republicans urged her to resign – she is not the target of the DA’s investigation. That’s according to an email obtained by The Denver Post.
When the breach was made public, state election officials made it clear that the public passwords did not pose a security threat to Colorado’s elections and did not impact how ballots would be counted. That’s because the passwords listed in the spreadsheet would need to be paired with another password kept separately, not to mention that the person using them would need physical access to the highly-protected voting machines.
Denver voters reject sales tax for affordable housing
Denver voted narrowly rejected Ballot Issue 2R – Mayor Mike Johnston’s plan to raise the local sales tax by 5 cents for every $10 spent, to go toward affordable housing.
As of Friday evening, voters opposed the measure by a roughly 1.5% margin. Johnston conceded the defeat over the weekend.
The Colorado Sun reports that the measure would have raised an estimated $100 million a year to address the city’s housing shortage – the largest ever expansion of a local government affordable housing program in the state’s history. Officials added that the funding would have allowed Denver to create over 40,000 affordable housing units over the next decade.
While the sales tax for 2R wouldn’t have counted toward essential products like food or medical supplies, The Sun says sales taxes are generally considered regressive since those who make less money will inevitably end up spending more of their income through those taxes.
The median rent in the Denver-Metro area currently stands at just shy of $1,900 a month. The median home price is over $600,000.
Denver residents will see a hike in taxes regardless, since voters approved a separate ballot measure to raise sales taxes for Denver Health. The rate will rise to 9.15%. If both had passed, the city sales tax would’ve increased to 9.65% – the highest in the state.
Colorado Springs voters narrowly reject recreational marijuana ban
In other election news – voters in Colorado Springs have most likely rejected a proposed ban of recreational marijuana sales within city limits.
There are still hundreds of ballots that need processing, which require additional steps like ID checks and the counting of ballots from military and overseas voters.
Races for Colorado Springs will not be officially called until the Canvass Board certifies the vote count on November 27.
Voters faced two competing – and seemingly contradictory – ballot measures related to marijuana: Question 2D proposed banning all retail marijuana shops in the city, while Question 300 would authorize the city’s roughly 90 existing medical marijuana shops to start selling retail cannabis products.
According to The Denver Gazette, Question 2D is failing by a thin one-point margin. Question 300 is currently projected to pass, with roughly 54% of counted ballots in favor.
Daniel Cole with the Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition told The Gazette that he supported 2D, and says if voters pass 300 it’s likely because of confusing ballot language.
Group in Jefferson County works to get flags into classrooms
A Jefferson County group delivered its first round of American flags to Arvada Middle School on Veterans Day as part of an initiative to get an American flag in every classroom across the district.
The effort was led by Lindsay Datko and the parents of Jeffco Kids First. Datko says that displaying an American Flag permanently and prominently in every active classroom is required under state law.
More than 50 volunteers from the group contacted principals across the district and a thousand flags were requested. A total of $10,000 in donations made in honor of veterans allowed for the flags to be delivered to their new classrooms.
CU Boulder alum returns after a space mission
CU Boulder alumn Sarah Gillis returned to Boulder yesterday after a space mission, wherein she participated in the first-ever commercial spacewalk. On that trip, she also became the first person to play a violin in space.
Gillis grew up in Boulder, graduating from CU in 2017 as an aerospace engineer. She is the 21st astronaut to come out of CU.
