Tomorrow, El Paso County Clerk Steve Schlieker will administer the election in Colorado’s most populous county. Last Thursday, Schlieker sent a letter to his election staff and the county’s bipartisan team of poll workers assuring them that tomorrow’s election is secure and that the recent password leak from Colorado Secretary of State Jen Griswold’s office will not impact vote counting.
“I wanted to inform you that the recent security breach involving the Secretary of State’s BIOS passwords being provided to the public has been fully addressed and remedied here in my office,” wrote Schlieker. “Today, one of the Secretary of State’s Cybersecurity team members reset our BIOS passwords. This process was thoroughly observed by our Information Systems Manager, our Elections Specialist, and two bipartisan teams of election judges (two Republicans and two Democrats).
“I want to reassure you that I was never concerned about the security of our election equipment, as these systems are physically isolated and cannot be connected to any external network. Our equipment lacks ISPs, Network Interface Cards, Modems, and Wireless Cards, which means it is completely independent from internet connectivity. This architecture inherently prevents any external cyber threats, reinforcing my confidence in the security of our election systems.
“In addition to our cybersecurity measures, we have strict physical security protocols in place for all election equipment. Our systems are stored in secure, access-controlled locations with continuous surveillance, card key entry, cyber locks, room alarms, CPU locked lockers, and our rooms are constantly under 24/7 video surveillance, and are patrolled by our security team. Furthermore, only authorized personnel with appropriate oversight have access to this equipment during each stage of the election process.
“As we move forward, everything remains business as usual here in El Paso County, and I am confident in the reliability and security of our operations.”
On Friday Schleiker called on the secretary of state to resign but notably did not cite any concern about El Paso County’s election security.
In a comment on the private Facebook group to which this letter was shared, Colorado GOP Director of Special Initiatives Darcy Schoening rejected it completely:
“This letter means as much to me as if my cat wrote it,” stated Schoening. “What would Mr. Schleiker tell you if the info had been compromised? Actually, it has. El Paso was compromised. If he sent a letter saying this is all for nothing because everything is compromised, the volunteers would quit. So the volunteers are told it’s all ok. This is so far from okay. It’s all a lie.”
Steve Collier, a precinct committee person and former officer of the Douglas County GOP, chimed in, “No one in the right mind can say with 100% certainty that Colorado elections are secure if passwords for voting systems have been in the public venue for weeks across the state for 63 of the 64 counties.”
Today the Secretary of State’s office announced that the password disclosure impacted 34 counties.
On another private Facebook page, Schoening announced a Sunday evening Zoom call for Republicans, and seemed to imply that any clerks’ absence from the call should be considered suspect.
“Candidates, counties, and county clerks are invited to join for a discussion,” wrote Schoening. “Anyone else is welcome. We’ll briefly go over ballot initiatives and also cover the Griswold scandal and what the GOP is doing, plus a call to action for clerks. If your county clerk is not on the call tonight, you have to wonder why.”
Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes responded to Schoening “Or if your county clerk isn’t on the call it’s because we are trying to spend time with our families before this week. Thanks. Be blessed!”
Schoening responded by writing, “Let’s not use ‘families’ as a cover for county clerks not wanting to do the right thing, not wanting to stand up to Griswold, and/or not wanting to associate with ‘election deniers.'”
Koppes, who also serves as Vice Chair of the Colorado County Clerks Association, pushed back last week against her own party’s claims that the partial passwords posted online could compromise election results. She told KDVR, “This is actually a scenario that we’ve worked through. So, we’re just all going through what we’ve trained on and making sure that we continue to have our security protocols in operation and move forward with making sure all of our elections stay secure,” said Koppes. “Even if you had that partial password, we still have all of the physical security aspects that will defend against you. We also have all of my security passwords that defend against you. And you just would not be able to use that partial password that was provided.”
Republican clerks have faced skepticism, criticism and personal attacks from election deniers ever since the 2020 election. Over the weekend La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Lee told the Durango Herald about people questioning her ethics and calling her corrupt. Lee noted that La Plata County was not one of the 31 counties affected by the password disclosure.
