Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has said she won’t be resigning after a ‘leaked password’ scandal involving Colorado’s voting system.

Kyle Clark, of Denver’s Next on 9NEWS, conducted an in-depth interview with Griswold, questioning her on the leaked passwords, among other things.

The interview starts with Griswold confirming that passwords related to the voting system were unintentionally posted to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office website, viewable by the public. According to Griswold, the passwords were on a hidden tab on a spreadsheet, which contained one of two passwords needed to access some voting components around the state.

“We do not see this as a full security threat to the state,” said Griswold. “This is not a security threat.”

The passwords were removed last Thursday, after being posted for several months without the mistake being realized.

Griswold also confirmed that she had not yet notified county clerks of the password leak at the time the news broke, with an investigation into the situation still underway.

When Griswold was questioned about her regular expressed concern of ‘insider threats’ related to election integrity, she also noted that she does not believe the password leak constituted an ‘insider threat’ due to layers of security that exist in Colorado around voting, noting that she believes these security measures make Colorado’s voting system one of the best in the nation.

Clark pressed Griswold on this issue, noting that she called a 2021 Mesa County voting system password leak a “serious breach of voting system security protocols.” Griswold denied that this more recent leak from her office – which may have impacted 63 of 64 Colorado counties according to some reporting – was a breach of similar severity. Griswold continued to note that her office has no reason to believe the recent leak led to a security breach in Colorado.

Clark continued to draw parallels between this situation and the Mesa County leak.

In 2021, Mesa County was ordered to stop using machines of which passwords were leaked due to an inability of Griswold’s office to determine if a breach had occurred, according to Clark. At this time, machines that may be impacted by the most recent breach are still in use.

Griswold promised to take action if a security threat was determined, stating that comparison of the two leaks is like “comparing apples to oranges.”

When asked if an investigation is being led by an outside party into the recent leak, Griswold noted that federal agency CISA is involved.

Clark pointed out other instances in which Griswold’s office has acted in a way that may impact citizen’s belief in voting system integrity, including a 2022 instance in which non-citizens were told to register to vote via mailers and another 2022 instance when Griswold’s office encouraged people to vote after they had already voted.

When Clark asked Griswold if she would resign as a result of the leak and other issues that have been present during her leadership, she said “absolutely not,” and claimed Clark was “unfairly characterizing and leaving out crucial information.” Griswold also noted that Colorado is tied for “number one” nationwide when it comes to confidence in elections.

Griswold was then asked by Clark why “fundamental errors” keep happening. Griswold implied that some errors are inherent and that mistakes are taken “very seriously” when they occur.

When asked if Griswold had plans to tell the public about the recent leak had news of the mishap not broken otherwise, she said that her office “did not decide not to disclose something to county clerks” as the investigation into the situation continues. Griswold reiterated her opinion that “this is not a serious threat” to Colorado’s elections.

“This does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado’s elections, nor will it impact how ballots are counted,” a press release on the matter said. “Colorado elections include many layers of security. There are two unique passwords for every election equipment component, which are kept in separate places and held by different parties. Passwords can only be used with physical in-person access to a voting system.”

Watch the full interview here: