No charges will be filed after Colorado voting machine passwords leak, Denver DA's Office says

There will be no criminal charges filed after the online leak of voting machine passwords that happened in the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann made the announcement on Friday afternoon.

Hundreds of passwords to election equipment across the state were leaked days before Election Day and could have severely impacted about half of the state's counties. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told the Joint Budget Committee a month ago that she followed cybersecurity best practices when she learned of the situation and says there was never an immediate threat. She told the committee that she does regret that she waited several days before telling the governor or county clerks who secured the equipment.

Griswold has hired an outside firm to investigate the leak. McCann's office led a separate investigation into whether criminal charges were warranted. On Friday she said her office has determined the passwords "were published in error and not 'knowingly.'" McCann said a law could only have been broken if the leak was done "knowingly, arbitrarily or capriciously."

"There is no indication that the passwords were published in an effort to influence the outcome of an election," McCann said.