This story by Sara Wilson appeared on Colorado Newsline on December 4, 2024.
Republican canvass board members in seven Colorado counties voted against certifying the 2024 general election results, citing a recent password leak from the secretary of state’s office as the reason. Because the other board member and county clerk voted in favor of certification in each of those counties, the election was still certified.
Members in Archuleta, Boulder, Eagle, El Paso, Gilpin, Jefferson and Larimer counties refused to certify the results of the November 5 election, which is an administrative task to determine that the number of votes cast and votes counted is equal.
Canvass boards are composed of a Democrat and a Republican, who are appointed by county party chairs, and the local county clerk. Some counties include an unaffiliated voter on the board.
It is an uptick in Republican board members who chose not to vote to sign off on results in this election cycle, but not enough to affect the election certification timeline and process. In the June primary election and last year’s general election, Republican members from Boulder, El Paso and Jefferson counties were the only ones to vote against certification.
The increase comes as Colorado GOP leaders specifically spoke out against certification for the November 5 general election in light of a password security breach from Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office. In late October, the office announced that Basic Input Output System — or BIOS — passwords for election systems in numerous counties had inadvertently been publicly available online for months.
Election equipment was not tampered with, and the breach did not constitute a threat to election security, experts and officials said. A third-party investigation of the incident is underway.
“If ever we were going to decertify an election, this would be the time to do it,” Candice Stutzriem, a Republican El Paso County canvass board member, said during a November 11 party call. “We have been served up the best reason we’re going to see in our lifetime with this BIOS breach.”
She urged Republicans to appeal to Republican county clerks and convince them to vote against certification. That did not happen in any county.
Richard Walker, a Republican in Archuleta County, also noted the BIOS password leak in his written statement about not certifying, adding that it is in “no way a reflection on our county clerk or the office, which did an excellent job.”
In her minority report, Jefferson County Republican Nancy Pallozzi wrote that the processing of ballots following the password leak news did not give her confidence in the election.
“I feel all tabulators should have been shut down, had an emergency Logic and Accuracy Test to clear the machines and then started over with the processing of the ballots. There was still enough time before Election Day to do this,” she wrote.