Opinion | A weird story out of Colorado shows the dangers U.S. democracy faces

A bizarre drama unfolding on the western edge of Colorado illustrates the danger. Election machine passwords from Mesa County, Colo., mysteriously appeared earlier this month on a right-wing conspiracy website. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) accused Tina M. Peters (R), Mesa County’s elected clerk and recorder, of abetting this security breach — ironically, in an apparent attempt to find evidence of election malfeasance. Ms. Griswold alleged that Ms. Peters smuggled an unauthorized man into a sensitive election software update session, where the passwords were apparently recorded, and she told her staff to switch off security cameras trained on the voting machines. Ms. Griswold added Monday that Ms. Peters, the unauthorized man and one other person also accessed a secure area in the dead of night, making copies of an election computer hard drive.