(EL PASO COUNTY, Colo.) — The Colorado GOP has released audio recordings of several phone calls between the secretary of state’s office and county officials in Colorado, in which the secretary of state’s office said it initially did not want to disclose the voting system password leak to the state’s county officials.

The Colorado GOP said the soundreleased Nov. 13, consists of phone calls between Secretary of State Jena Griswold, some of her staff and officials from Adams and El Paso counties. In audio from a Nov. 1 call, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Beall can be heard telling Adams County Clerk Josh Zygielbaum that the Secretary of State’s Office initially did not plan to tell the counties about the passwords because it wanted to avoid a “media storm.”

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Colorado Secretary of State’s website showed partial voting system passwords

“What the secretary’s office should have done, when you found out about this problem, is to put people in immediately to change passwords, instead of keeping it a secret from everyone… It’s completely unacceptable that this is our process now, five days before the election,” Zygielbaum said.

Also among county officials on the audio was Steve Schleiker, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder. Schleiker said Griswold had “completely lost credibility” in El Paso County, adding that he didn’t feel the media was going to the secretary of state’s office for election information, but instead was going to his county officials.

“I got nothing in response to that,” Secretary Griswold can be heard saying in response to Schleiker’s statement. “I understand and I appreciate all of you (county officials) and your cooperation in getting information out of your office that hopefully your citizens trust.”

The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder is calling for Griswold’s resignation

The Colorado GOP and Schleiker have both called for Secretary Griswold’s resignation in light of the disclosure of the partial passwords.

“This brief audio is from conversations between the department and the officials, and is a small portion of what the secretary and department staff conveyed to the officials,” a State Department spokesperson said.

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