Denver Post:…" a Republican county clerk in Colorado has been accused of allowing unauthorized access to voting machine passwords that ended up on the social media account of a QAnon leader.”
Colorado Pol: What Did Mesa County’s Q-razy Clerk Do?...it is not at all inconceivable that Clerk Peters might have given an outside party passwords or the means to obtain them in order to prove the conspiracy theory she has already alleged involving Dominion Voting Systems...it’s another stunning case of Republicans wishing so hard for election fraud they have to do it themselves.”
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jena-griswold-tina-peters-qanon-colorado-dominion-voting-machines_n_611864ede4b01da700f66af5
POLITICS 08/15/2021 12:22 am ET
Colo. Clerk Accused Of Allowing Access to Vote Machine Passwords That Ended Up With QAnon Leader
The compromised machines were decertified following a serious “security breach.”
By Mary Papenfuss
In the latest battle over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat, a Republican county clerk in Colorado has been accused of allowing unauthorized access to voting machine passwords that ended up on the social media account of a QAnon leader.
An investigation led by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold concluded that Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters allowed an unidentified, unauthorized individual to attend a software update in May for election equipment made by Dominion Voting Systems. That person allegedly took images of software passwords, which were then posted online early this month, Griswold detailed in a press conference Thursday.
Those passwords were shared by conservative blog The Gateway Pundit, according to The Denver Post. In addition, photos and videos of the Dominion software update session were posted on the social media page of influential QAnon leader Ron Watkins, Colorado Public Radio reported.
Speculation on the identity of “Q,” the mythical government insider who gave the conspiracy theory its name, has long centered on Watkins, a site administrator of far-right message board 8kun, a hotbed of extremism where QAnon flourished early.
“To be very clear, Mesa County’s clerk and recorder allowed a security breach and, by all evidence at this point, assisted it,” Griswold said. She accused Peters of “actively working to undermine confidence and spread disinformation.”
Griswold said that one week before the breach, Peters ordered her staff to turn off the video surveillance system that monitors the voting machines, and that it was only recently turned back on.
The compromised voting equipment was decertified following what Griswold called a profound “breach in security.” Griswold said her office “cannot establish a verifiable chain of custody for any of the [current] voting systems components in Mesa County and cannot establish confidence in the integrity or security of those components.”
Local prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into the suspected breach. A probe by Griswold’s office is continuing.
Peters, who has baselessly challenged the election results, issued a statement simply saying that “citizens of Mesa County have been critical of election integrity. They have brought me their concerns and I have told them I will do everything in my power to protect their vote.”
At the time of Griswold’s press conference, Peters was attending MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s bizarre “Cyber Symposium,” reported the Colorado Daily Sentinel. Lindell had promised, again, to finally reveal proof that the presidential election was fraudulent — which he failed to do.
A Colorado association of county clerks is backing Griswold’s investigation. “We offer our full support to this inquiry and hope that a thorough investigation will provide clear answers to the concerns raised by the Secretary of State’s office,” it said in a statement.
Concerns about the voting machine breach are similar to those stoked by the controversial Arizona recount of Maricopa County votes, which was launched earlier this year by Republicans livid over Trump’s November defeat in the state.
Auditors of the inexperienced, highly partisan Cyber Ninjas company, headed by QAnon disciple and Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, have been allowed largely unfettered, unsupervised access to ballots and other equipment. Election officials there have also said that those voting machines are no longer usable because they have also been comprised by a partisan operation.
…………………………………………………..https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/161797/what-did-mesa-countys-q-razy-clerk-do
What Did Mesa County’s Q-razy Clerk Do?
by: Colorado PolsAugust 10, 2021 at 7:46 AM MDT
Media outlets across the state are alight this morning over allegations that GOP Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters may have been involved in a serious breach of election systems security that resulted in alleged passwords to access voting equipment posted on the conspiracy theory blog Gateway Pundit and elsewhere. The Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby:
Secretary of State Jena Griswold issued a direct order to Peters early Monday demanding that she disclose surveillance recordings and other documents related to the illegal release of passwords to Mesa County election computers, including detailed information for an unknown employee who may or may not work for her who Peters allowed to have access to sensitive election information…
“This is a very serious breach in chain-of- custody and security protocols, Griswold added. “If the Mesa County clerk cannot show proof in the chain of custody or if the voting equipment after inspection, if there is anything that comes to our attention, the voting equipment will be decertified.”
Griswold also said that possible criminal charges could be filed as a result of the security breach, but declined to say whether Peters herself or someone else in her office could held liable pending the outcome of her office’s investigation.
The Denver Post’s Justin Wingerter has additional details on the alleged breach:
Secretary of State Jena Griswold believes the alleged breach occurred May 25 during the installation of new Dominion Voting Systems software. On Aug. 2, images of the software were posted to the social media site Telegram and conservative blog The Gateway Pundit. Dominion has been a target of conspiracy theories that claim it changed votes in the 2020 presidential election.
The social media and blog posts do not mention Colorado or Mesa County but, according to Griswold’s order, the images include “passwords specific to the individual hardware stations of Mesa County’s voting system.”
Here’s the most important point: the Sentinel reports that the passwords leaked online are useless for anyone not physically present in front of a Mesa County elections workstation. The password is not for a remotely accessible login to any election system because the machines are not connected to the internet. That means all the contentions made by Gateway Pundit, et al are made up.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters revealed herself as an unapologetic 2020 election dead-ender in January despite her firsthand experience with Dominion Voting Systems election hardware used by her and almost all 64 counties in Colorado. Peters joined in the online pile-on against Denver-based Dominion executive Eric Coomer over libelous fiction that Coomer helped steal the election, and called the results in 2020 “fraud on a grand scale.”
With all of these facts in view, it is not at all inconceivable that Clerk Peters might have given an outside party passwords or the means to obtain them in order to prove the conspiracy theory she has already alleged involving Dominion Voting Systems. In Peters’ response to the order from Secretary of State Jena Griswold, there’s a hint that Peters knows very well what’s going on:
“Confidence in the election process is paramount,” she said. “The citizens of Mesa County have been critical of election integrity. They have brought me their concerns and I have told them I will do everything in my power to protect their vote.”
“Protecting the vote” by undermining election security? Talk about destroying the village in order to save it. If that’s what happened, it’s another stunning case of Republicans wishing so hard for election fraud they have to do it themselves.
Stay tuned, this story could turn explosive at any moment.