State orders Elbert Clerk to explain about copy he made of election equipment hard drive

Colorado’s Secretary of State is demanding more information from the Elbert County clerk about a copy he made of the county’s election server, calling the situation “a potential breach of election security.”

The case has its roots in Mesa County, where clerk Tina Peters is under a long-running criminal investigation for allegedly allowing an unauthorized person to image the hard drives of her voting machines. Some of that data ended up being shared at a forum that claimed — and failed — to provide proof of widespread election fraud.

In a court affidavit, clerk Dallas Schroeder, a Republican, said that Peters’ concerns inspired him to make a copy of Elbert County’s election server before a software update last summer; the data is now on an external hard drive “under lock and key in the Elbert election office.” 

In a press release Monday, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said she has been seeking more information about Schroeder’s actions to ensure they didn’t compromise the security of the count’s equipment. So far, the clerk has not cooperated. Now her office has sent Schroeder a subpoena, ordering him to make a sworn deposition.

Schroeder’s office did not respond to CPR’s request for comment.

Incident revealed in election lawsuit

The Elbert clerk’s affidavit is included in a lawsuit that argues Colorado’s election equipment hasn’t been properly certified because the lab that evaluated its software had a lapsed federal accreditation at the time of testing. The suit asks the court to order an “independent forensic audit” of the state’s election equipment.

In addition to Schroeder, parties to the suite include the Douglas County clerk, Merlin Klotz, two Rio Blanco County commissioners, and Republican state Rep. Ron Hanks, who participated in the January 6th protest in D.C. and has repeated false claims about the 2020 presidential election.

In his affidavit, Schroeder said he is seeking state approval to hire a cybersecurity expert to make another copy of the election hard drive, to look for evidence that the software update “destroyed 2020 election records.” A rule issued last summer by Griswold bans third-party audits such as the one conducted in Arizona. Colorado does require county clerks to conduct their own audits after each election to check paper ballots against the computer tabulations.

Election conspiracy theorists have claimed that Colorado’s election software update last year — a procedure known as a “trusted build” — was used by the equipment’s manufacturer, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, to cover up evidence of election fraud. The state explained to the Grand Junction Sentinel that the files deleted were outdated elements of the operating system, not records of actual election data, which counties are required to back up.

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