Judge hears password leak case and demands consequences
A Denver judge refused to rule immediately on a lawsuit brought by the Libertarian party, seeking to force state counties to count ballots by hand.
The emergency hearing came in the wake of an accidental leak of voting equipment passwords through the Secretary of State’s office, by way of their website.
The office was first alerted that the passwords to many of the state’s 2,100 pieces of election equipment had been publicly accessible on their official site on October 24th. The leak was discovered by a prominent 2020 election denier, according to The Denver Post.
The Libertarian party, who is suing Griswold and the Deputy Secretary of State, is demanding that the court decommission any voting machine accessible via the leaked passwords, and that counties restart all ballot counting by hand.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and attorneys representing her said her office does a lot of password training to ensure passwords are safe and are working quickly to rectify the situation through an investigation.
The judge did not say how quickly they will rule the case.
Polls to move quickly depending on accuracy
Election Night could move quickly in Colorado, according to Denver7, depending on how quickly and accurately ballots are counted.
According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, fewer voters have returned their ballots so far this election compared to this time in 2020. Some officials attribute this to the especially long list of measures on this year’s statewide ballot.
Philip Chen, a political science professor at the University of Denver, said we should expect a fairly routine ballot count in Colorado – but that it’s too soon to know how quickly the race could be called.
An average of 49% of voters support Kamala Harris and 48% of voters are backing Trump, according to several national polls compiled by the New York Times.
Tune in to KGNU tonight at 6 PM, for four hours of live local and national election coverage.
Election Day is here
It’s too late to return your ballot by mail, but you still have plenty of time to vote!
Voters across Colorado have until 7 p.m. today to vote in-person at statewide voting centers, or drop off their ballot at one of the state’s 433 ballot drop boxes.
Also, those who are eligible to vote but have not yet registered can still do so today. There are voter service centers in Boulder County and beyond, and all you need is your ID. If you forget your ID, you can obtain a provisional ballot and submit your identification afterward to get your vote counted.
For a last-minute dive into specific measures and races, head to kgnu.org’s election landing page.
