Voting Machine Investigation Launches In Colorado – FBI Joins Probe Into Elections Equipment Password Breach
The debate surrounding election integrity continues to rage throughout the country. It will undoubtedly be a major point of contention when the 2022 midterm elections roll around, too.
There’s also plenty of controversy concerning the reliability of voting machines, and the election officials who run them. Security is a serious concern for both campaigners and voters.
That’s why one county in Colorado will be conducting a criminal investigation into a security breach. And the FBI is involved now as well.
This story involves voting machines and passwords leaked online: on August 9, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced she’d begin her own investigation into the matter.
The passwords popped up on the social media site Telegram, and allegedly implicated County Clerk Tina Peters and two other individuals.
They’re being held responsible for this breach of security — investigators say online images of the election equipment passwords were taken from a county election server on May 23 “outside of normal work hours.”
Now, officials demand answers. Via Washington Examiner:
Officials in Mesa County, Colorado, confirmed Tuesday that local prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the county clerk’s office after a breach in security protocol resulted in elections equipment passwords being published online.
The FBI is getting involved as well, according to a spokesperson for the agency’s Denver office (via CNN).
The probe has already started with Republican Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubenstein. His office just “obtained and executed search warrants” to determine how the passwords were accessed.
Now, they’re “identifying and interviewing potential witnesses.”
Secretary of State Griswold must now appoint a supervisor to handle the purchase and certification of new voting equipment. The deadline for that is August 31.
That’s going to be of paramount importance moving forward for the state: they need to ensure election integrity, and voters need to be able to rely on the voting machines.
Many still claim the Dominion voting machines were altered during the 2020 presidential election, though others say there isn’t enough evidence to support such a charge.
In this case, though, there was a definite breach involving personal passwords. And voting machines were certainly involved, too, so it’s bound to add more fuel to the fire.
Source: Washington Examiner