(RoyalPatriot.com )- Back in November, several Republican officials in Colorado filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State Jena Griswold, alleging that the election software used in the 2020 election was improperly certified and the Secretary of State’s office illegally destroyed election records.
As part of their effort to prove their case, three Republican county clerks made copies of their election system hard drives. And in response, Secretary of State Griswold has launched investigations against all three accusing them of making unauthorized copies of election system servers.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder were the first two targeted by Griswold for investigation. And on Thursday, Griswold set her sights on Douglas County Clerk Merlin Klotz, ordering him to answer questions and turn over everything related to the copy he made of his county’s election system hard drive.
In a statement on Thursday, the Democrat Secretary of State said Republican Clerk Merlin Klotz failed to respond to her office’s email request demanding disclosure “about this potential breach in election security protocol.” So now she has issued an “Election Order” requiring him to disclose the information.
Klotz, along with Dallas Schroeder, and Republican state Rep. Ron Hanks were the ones who sued Griswold in November.
Secretary of State Griswold denies the claims in their lawsuit, alleging they were based on debunked conspiracy theories.
Merlin Klotz’s attorney John Case told the Colorado Sun that by initiating these investigations, the Secretary of State is attempting to persecute the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against her. He said by making copies of the election server hard drives, these three county clerks were only doing their job, namely “trying to preserve election records.”
Case admitted that he didn’t have all the details on what Klotz had done and he still had to confer with him about it. But he does know that Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder did make a copy of the election system server, but doing so was not illegal.
Case argued that a county clerk is charged with administering and maintaining the election system and, as part of that responsibility, is allowed to copy what is on the server. What’s more, Case contends, the county clerk is responsible “for preserving those records for 25 months. That’s his job.”
