(PatrioticPost.com)- A Colorado county clerk who was accused of breaching election data last week turned over the copied information after a court order.
Last year, Elbert County Clerk, Republican Dallas Schroeder, who was part of a lawsuit seeking to compel an audit of the state’s elections system, made copies of the county’s voting system. According to court filings, Schroeder said he made the copies out of concern that a routine software update to the voting system would alter or erase the records from the 2020 election, arguing he had a “statutory duty” to preserve the records.
After Schroeder disclosed in the lawsuit that he had made copies of the hard drive, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, opened an investigation into his actions to determine if he violated the state’s election rules when he made his “unauthorized” copies of the hard drives.
When Griswold deemed Schroeder’s response to her order incomplete, she took him to court to compel him to respond.
Schroeder had argued that the hard drives containing the data were not a component of the voting system and he had the authority to make the copies.
However, Elbert County District Court Judge Gary Kramer rejected Schroeder’s arguments and had ordered him to turn over the copied hard drives to the Secretary of State’s office by Wednesday afternoon.
Court records show that Schroeder turned over the copies in separate, sealed metal containers along with a “protest letter.”
The Secretary of State’s office confirmed on Thursday that two copies of the hard drive had been received and were currently being reviewed.
Judge Kramer had also instructed Schroeder to provide a description of the chain of custody for the copied hard drives, but that information would only be accessible to the court and the parties in the case.