The order issued by Jena Griswold, the state’s Democratic secretary of state, is the third of its kind to put a local Republican election official under scrutiny for mishandling critical voting equipment.
Griswold said in a press statement that the order stemmed from a social media post by Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz, who said his office had copied an election server before “a trusted build” of the county’s voting equipment was completed. The trusted build is a process of updating voting equipment against vulnerabilities, and making a copy of the server violates security protocol, according to Griswold’s statement.
In a Telegram post last week, Klotz said his office made a backup of the server before the trusted build as his office does every year.
Klotz said he is concerned about what he called a “coordinated effort” between the secretary of state and Dominion Voting Systems, a company that has been the subject of baseless accusations by former President Donald Trump and his allies of perpetuating voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Klotz, who was elected to his position in 2014, said he had attended a symposium by Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow who has spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Klotz wrote that the symposium raised numerous concerns for him about the trusted build’s security.
While Griswold said the copying of the server doesn’t create “an imminent or direct security risk to Colorado’s elections,” her office is taking action after Klotz didn’t respond to an earlier request for information.
“As Secretary of State, I will continue to protect Colorado’s election infrastructure to ensure that every eligible Coloradan – Republican, Democrat, and Independent, alike – has access to secure elections,” she said in the statement.
Douglas County spokeswoman Wendy Manitta Holmes told Newsweek in an email that the county had just received the order and was not prepared to comment.
In addition to requiring detailed information about the copying of the election server, Griswold’s order requires Klotz to activate video surveillance of voting equipment and ensure no one has access to it unaccompanied. Workers from the Colorado State Department completed the county’s trusted build in August 2021.
The order from Griswold is similar to one the secretary of state sent to Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder last week over what she says is his office’s copying of voting system hard drives in breach of security protocols.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has been under investigation since January 12 for a security breach of elections equipment. Last October, a judge removed Peters as the county’s election official after Griswold filed a lawsuit alleging the clerk gave someone access to an authorized elections area amid a Dominion Voting Systems software update, compromising the county’s voting system.
Newsweek has reached out to Griswold’s office for further comment.
