The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office announced Thursday it is investigating what it described as a potential breach of security protocols involving voting system equipment in Douglas County.

In particular, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold wants to know if Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz took images of hard drives outside of any officially-sanctioned activity.

In a statement, Griswold, a Democrat, said her office was alerted to a social media post attributed to Klotz and posted last fall that said “a full image backup of our server before a trusted build was done this year.” She said her office sent questions to Klotz but did not receive any answers. 

In an email, Klotz declined to comment, saying he’s not free to discuss the case as it’s related to litigation involving Griswold.

Griswold’s office Thursday issued an official order demanding the county clerk and recorder answer a slew of questions, notably when the images of hard drives were created, how many copies were made, who was present during the act, and who has access to the copies.

The state official also wants to know whether MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell or his representative contacted Klotz regarding the imaging or over “any activity that would breach Colorado election rule, procedure, or law.” Griswold’s office said the social media post attributed to Klotz said he submitted comments to the  Lindell legal team about log files and voting equipment passwords.  

Klotz is one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Griswold last November. The other plaintiffs are Schroeder, state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City; Rio Blanco County Commissioners Jeff Rector and Gary Moyer, Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder and Park County Commissioner Amy Mitchell

Douglas County is the third county under Griswold’s scrutiny for similar reasons. She sent an election order to Schroeder last month, also demanding answers after becoming aware of a potential security protocol breach from an affidavit Schroeder submitted, tied to a November lawsuit he and five other plaintiffs filed in a Denver District Court against the Secretary of State’s office over “multiple unfounded election conspiracy theories.”  

In response to the order, Schroeder, a Republican, said he made copies of two hard drives of the county’s Dominion Voting Systems equipment, received instructions from two non-election staffers on how to do so, and admitted giving a copy to two private attorneys, including his personal counsel.

Schroeder defended his actions, saying he made the copies out of his belief that he has a “statutory duty” to preserve election records, that by doing so he was complying with instructions from the secretary of state to back up election data and that he feared a “trusted build” might “erase or alter electronic records of the November 2020 election.”

Last year, Griswold launched an inquiry into whether Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, the county’s highest election officer, allowed an unauthorized person to record the procedure, including images of screens that showed system passwords. Images of the passwords to some of Mesa County’s voting system hardware surfaced online. 

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Merlin Klotz has declined to comment.