The Denver District Attorney’s Office will not file criminal charges related to the inadvertent release of some voting system passwords by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, prosecutors announced Friday.
In a statement, District Attorney Beth McCann said the release of the passwords, which were posted on the secretary of state’s website for several months starting in June, was not “an effort to influence the outcome of an election.” Instead, she wrote, the passwords release was an error that didn’t constitute a violation of law.
A law firm hired by Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office previously determined that the passwords’ release was inadvertent, though the review found that the office violated information security policies.
The passwords were included in a hidden tab on a larger spreadsheet by a staffer who left Griswold’s office in May 2023, the firm’s review found. Current staff members were not aware of the hidden tab when they published the spreadsheet online a year later.
In a separate statement Friday, Griswold’s office reiterated McCann’s findings and said that it had cooperated with the Denver investigation. Spokesman Jack Todd declined to comment further.
McCann’s office opened the investigation in November, shortly after the Colorado Republican Party announced in late October the discovery of the spreadsheet containing hidden passwords, which could be publicly downloaded.
There has been no evidence indicating the passwords were used to alter or interfere with election results, nor has any evidence suggested that elections systems were compromised. Anyone seeking to do so would’ve needed another set of passwords as well as physical access to controlled, camera-monitored areas in county clerks’ offices.
According to a 26-page report issued by McCann’s office, investigators spoke with several current and former state employees and also reviewed employees’ laptops and email accounts.
In an Oct. 24 email exchange among secretary of state staff — sent the day the office became aware that the passwords were publicly available — staffers sought to take down the spreadsheet. After being told about the issue, one employee whose name is redacted from the report replied: “Jesus.”
Investigators also received numerous “sworn affidavits” from people and groups seeking an investigation into the situation. None of those affidavits included new information or evidence that a crime had been committed, according to the report, and none came from within Denver.
The district attorney’s office in El Paso County has said it received two affidavits alleging state law violations, and the agency said it would cooperate with Denver prosecutors and review the Denver investigation. A spokeswoman for that office did not return messages seeking comment Friday.
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