A Denver judge on Tuesday rejected an attempt by the Libertarian Party to require a hand count of ballots in more than half of Colorado's counties in the election.

District Judge Kandace Gerdes ruled that there was no evidence that voting systems were compromised by the inadvertent release of some passwords on the Secretary of State's website. Gerdes issued the order early Tuesday afternoon, about five hours before polls closed.

Hannah Goodman, chairwoman of the Libertarian Party of Colorado, said the ruling was “basically what I expected” and the party plans to appeal.

In a statement, Secretary of State Jena Griswold said, “Colorado’s elections are secure because of the multi-layered security measures we take. I am pleased that the Denver District Court recognized the measures we have taken to address password disclosure.”

The ruling came a day after the state's Libertarian Party argued in court that ballots in 34 of Colorado's 64 counties should be counted by hand because some passwords for those counties' voting systems were accidentally available in a spreadsheet maintained by the secretary of state for four months were website. The presence of the passwords in a hidden tab of the spreadsheet was identified by a prominent election denier and revealed late last month by the Colorado Republican Party.

The state Libertarian Party filed its lawsuit Friday.

The passwords — which alone were not enough to compromise voting equipment — were changed before the party filed suit. Lawyers representing Griswold's office had argued that the libertarian's proposal would sow “chaos” in the general election.

Gerdes ruled that she did not have authority to respond to parts of the lawsuit. However, with regard to a possible appeal, she noted that Griswold's office did not knowingly share the passwords, that the office has since fixed the leak, and that “no witness testified or provided evidence that the affected counties voted.” Systems have been compromised or altered due to the password leak.”

On Monday, Griswold told The Denver Post that she regretted releasing the passwords and said her office had hired an outside law firm to investigate.

Nathan Evans, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Denver, called it “a pretty serious mistake” in an interview but said he wasn't worried about overall election integrity because of the other layers of security.

“Given the setbacks, I think they will take a close look at their policies and procedures going forward,” Evans said. “If there is a glimmer of hope: I don't think anything dramatic will happen as a result. But it’s a chance for (election officials) to say we need to review our policies and procedures and enforce them everywhere — and not cut corners and make these stupid mistakes.”