Mesa County DA investigating election office after alleged breach

Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said Wednesday that his bureau is investigating the region clerk’s bureau aft predetermination instrumentality passwords were allegedly posted online.

It’s the 2nd probe into the alleged information breach and is being conducted independently of a probe by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

Rubinstein, a Republican, said helium was contacted Monday greeting by Deputy Secretary of State Chris Beall and told that the Secretary of State’s Office was conducting an probe into a information breach astatine the clerk’s office. Rubinstein said it was the archetypal helium had heard of the breach. He assigned an researcher to look into it.

“I was told that they believed that determination were imaginable transgression matters which would beryllium referred to my bureau for prosecution,” the territory lawyer said Wednesday.

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Republican, has not complied with the caput of state’s investigation. On Tuesday, she flew to South Dakota and spoke at a “cyber symposium” designed to beryllium the 2020 statesmanlike predetermination was hacked. No grounds of hacking has been presented astatine the event.

Peters was fixed a lasting ovation astatine the symposium Tuesday night. She told the crowd, “I person been persecuted. They person tried to instrumentality implicit my elections office” and “control the mode we vote” successful the blimpish Western Slope county.

“Just yesterday, I got an bid from the caput of authorities that she was going to invade my elections bureau today, and conjecture what? When I was connected a level to travel spot you benignant folks and speech to you retired there, conjecture what they did? They provided a hunt warrant and raided my office,” Peters said.

The clerk said that instrumentality enforcement officers and “a DA person” were besides successful the bureau Tuesday. She claimed they were determination “on trumped-up charges” but didn’t accidental what those charges are.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said successful an interrogation Wednesday that six employees from her bureau flew to Grand Junction connected Tuesday morning. They were accompanied by a region worker astatine each times arsenic they inspected voting instrumentality and chain-of-custody logs for the equipment, according to Griswold. Employees from the territory attorney’s bureau were besides there, she said.

“There were 2 investigations being conducted independently of each different astatine the aforesaid time,” Griswold said.

The Secretary of State’s Office believes an alleged breach occurred astatine the region clerk’s bureau May 25 during an update of Dominion Voting Systems’ software. On Aug. 2, images posted to the societal media tract Telegram and right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit included predetermination instrumentality passwords. As a result, Mesa County’s instrumentality whitethorn person to beryllium replaced, according to the caput of state.

“Our probe is to find whether oregon not information protocols person been compromised and whether oregon not we request to prohibit the voting equipment,” Griswold said. “That’s what we are focused on. Then there’s besides a transgression probe being led by the territory lawyer retired there.”

Rubinstein declined to springiness details astir who oregon what his bureau is investigating but said, “I tin corroborate that we person not entered into this probe with immoderate idiosyncratic oregon transgression enactment successful mind.”

The Colorado County Clerks Association said Monday that it afloat supports the Secretary of State’s Office probe and hopes “a thorough probe volition supply wide answers to the concerns raised by” Griswold.

The Mesa County clerk criticized the relation and its enforcement manager astatine the symposium Tuesday night, claiming that they cognize elections tin beryllium hacked but are unwilling to talk up.

Peters, meanwhile, has until Thursday to respond to Griswold’s bid that she manus implicit immoderate communications, including texts and voicemails, successful which she oregon her unit discussed Dominion oregon the alleged breach, on with each inheritance checks connected clerk’s bureau employees.

“From the accusation that we have, we volition past marque a determination arsenic to whether the clerk’s bureau has proven that determination was nary lapse successful concatenation of custody implicit this equipment,” Griswold said of her office’s investigation. “They volition besides person to beryllium that determination was nary unacceptable entree to the voting equipment.”