Third Colorado county clerk under investigation
A third Colorado county clerk and recorder is now under investigation by the secretary of state’s office over allegations of potentially breaching election security protocols.
An Oct. 1, 2021, Telegram message from “Ashe in America” and forwarded from “Dahn W” was attributed to Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz, a Republican. It stated that a copy of the voting equipment server was created, according to the message provided by Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office.
When Griswold’s office was alerted to the post attributed to Klotz on Jan. 28, the department asked Klotz to submit more information by Jan. 31, but he did not respond, her office said. So she issued an order Thursday requiring that the information be disclosed by Feb. 10 in writing about how the image was made, who was involved and who else knew about it. She also ordered that video surveillance of voting equipment be turned on and that no one enter the equipment room unaccompanied.
“To ensure the security of Douglas County’s voting equipment, I am issuing an Election Order requiring the Douglas Clerk to disclose information regarding the imaging of the election equipment server,” Griswold said in a written statement. “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.”
Klotz is one of the plaintiffs who sued Griswold’s office in November in an attempt to launch an Arizona-style audit of the 2020 election results. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
“After my friend SOS, Wayne Williams selected Dominion as the sole election system provider for Colorado, I sued for an alternative. Accordingly only Douglas and Garfield counties now use Clear Ballot election system,” the Telegram message read. “And we, as always, took a full image backup of our server before a trusted build was done this year.”
A conspiracy theory involving Dominion Voting Systems is often cited among supporters of former President Donald Trump who claim, without evidence, widespread election fraud during the 2020 election — claims that have been repeatedly debunked.
All other counties in Colorado use Dominion Voting Systems, and San Juan uses Dominion for ballot marking devices and then hand counts without a scanner and tabulation, according to the secretary of state’s office. The message noted that Klotz was in communication with the Lindell legal team (Mike Lindell is the CEO of Mypillow and a 2020 election conspiracy theorist). It also referenced Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, saying that before Peters “exposing” what was going on with the “trusted build” process — a routine update to protect against vulnerabilities, according to the secretary of state’s office — Klotz assumed it was just an update to newer program files.
A grand jury is investigating Peters and others in relation to allegations of election equipment tampering and official misconduct. She is the first Colorado county clerk to be investigated by Griswold’s office over allegedly allowing an unauthorized man access to a secure area in the county elections office. Passwords from voting equipment were later posted online, according to the secretary of state’s office. Peters was also barred by a judge from overseeing the 2021 election and the secretary of state’s office is seeking a similar outcome for 2022.
Earlier this month, Griswold ordered Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder to appear at a deposition and answer questions about allegedly making a copy of the Dominion Voting Systems hard drive with direction from others outside his office. Schroeder is also part of the lawsuit against the secretary of state’s office.
Like in the case of Elbert County, Griswold’s office said it didn’t believe that the alleged unauthorized imaging in Douglas County “has created an imminent or direct security risk to Colorado’s elections” because it’s said to have occurred prior to the 2021 “trusted build” of the county’s voting equipment.