The Patriots

by Marianne Goodland, Colorado Politics

Dallas Schroeder, the Republican Clerk and Recorder for Elbert County, 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, who included his personal counsel.

Schroeder's admission came in response to a Jan. 19 order from Secretary of State Jena Griswold, whose office asked about a potential breach of security protocols tied to the county's Dominion Voting System equipment.

In his response, Schroeder said 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." 

Schroeder said "both hard drives were removed from the election server, one hard drive was removed from each ICC [image cast central] computer, and one hard drive was removed from the adjudication computer. Each hard drive was copied separately, then returned to its case."

Schroeder said he was accompanied by Rhonda Braun, the Elbert Elections Manager, and Amanda Moore, an employee of the Elbert County Clerk and Recorder's office. 

He also disclosed that two other individuals who are not employees of the Elbert County Clerk’s office provided him instructions as he made copies. Schroeder identified them as Sean Smith and Mark Cook, although Smith's first name was misspelled. It's Shawn Smith of Colorado Springs, who is with the U.S. Election Integrity Project (USEIP). A new order from Griswold on Jan. 27 corrects the typo. 

Smith appeared at an August cyber-symposium hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, which also featured an appearance from Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters. Griswold recently filed another lawsuit against Tina Peters, this time in an effort to keep her from overseeing the 2022 elections.

Smith is the president of a related election integrity group, Cause of America, which he said in a podcast is funded by Lindell.

Cook, an IT security consultant, appears to be associated with another election integrity group, Great American Rebirth, and, from emails, also appears to have been involved in an attempt to do a post-2020-election third-party audit in Sacramento. 

Two attorneys, including Schroeder's private attorney, John Case, have copies, according to Schroeder's response.

In a statement, Griswold said in light of disclosures in Schroeder's answers, she issued the Jan. 27 order requiring him to produce records and answer additional questions regarding the copying and distribution of copies of voting system hard drives. The information Schroeder provided suggested there is a "likelihood that the voting equipment was copied by using a prohibited removable storage device" and that copies are in the custody of "unauthorized people in violation of Election Rules," the statement said.

The order also requires Schroeder to retake possession of all the copies and provide the devices used in the copying for inspection.

“My office is reviewing the information received about the copying of Elbert County’s voting equipment hard drives,” Griswold said. “We are continuing to investigate, and will determine any additional steps required.”

Additionally, the Secretary of State’s Office is consulting with counsel at the Attorney General’s Office on the "potential ramifications" of Schroeder’s actions. [Yes we can see why. First Griswold removed Peters from her position as Mesa County Clerk because of Fraud evidence she found. Secondly she is in a panic over the possibility that additional damning evidence will be found in the inspection of the Elbert county Dominion server.  Her counsel is working on ways to keep this information from the public. Verrifying voting records IS NOT a violation of election integrity. However covering up the efforts of Clerks Peters and Schroeder are viewed as an effort to silence and remove the whisle blowers.. - ED]

The breach occurred prior to the 2021 trusted build of Elbert County’s 2021 voting equipment, which updates systems against vulnerabilities. The Secretary of State’s Office does not believe, for now, that the unauthorized imaging "created an imminent or direct security risk to Colorado’s elections." [A forensic review of the Dominion voting machine AFTER the trusted build may change that opinion. Clerk Schroeder had the 'trusted build' independently inspected. - ED]

The Secretary of State's Office said it became aware of the potential security protocol breach from an affidavit Schroeder filed, 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." The plaintiffs for that lawsuit also include state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City; Rio Blanco County Commissioners Jeff Rector and Gary Moyer; Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz; and Park County Commissioner Amy Mitchell. [Note the ever preent media spin.".multiple unfounded  conspiracy theories..". Tina Peters 3rd party forensic analysis of the Mesa County machine is neither unfounded NOR a conspiracy, it's real fraud already repeated in Schroeder's district. - ED]

In that affidavit, first reported by The Colorado Sun, Schroeder said he was informed of evidence that the 'trusted build' process performed in May 2021 on Mesa County's Dominion system had erased electronic files that were part of the 2020 election records.

Schroeder affidavit

Given that he did not believe that the company that did testing on the Dominion systems, Pro V&V, was no longer federally certified, Schroeder said he made a forensic image of everything on the election servers. He said he saved those images to a secure external hard drive kept under lock and key in the Elbert County elections office.

Schroeder also said he wanted to hire an independent cybersecurity expert to make a forensic image of the county election server after the "trusted build" and compare it to the image Schroeder made before the trusted build update in order to determine if election records from 2020 had been destroyed. He was unable to do so because of new Secretary of State rules from Oct. 15 that prohibited him from hiring an independent expert. Schroeder seeks a court order to nullify the rules so he can do so.

{How convenient that the Secretary of state prevents Schroeder from procuring corroborative evidence. Schroeder would be smart to have the cyber security work done aside from the courts rather than wait for them. If the courts say 'No', we will never find the truth. - ED]

Schroeder did not return a request for comment.

Schroeder response to 2022-02

by AP

Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz

DENVER | Colorado’s secretary of state says a third Republican county clerk is under investigation for a “potential breach of security protocols” involving elections equipment.

Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said in a Thursday statement that she has ordered Merlin Klotz, clerk and recorder of Douglas County, to disclose information about a possible copying of data from an elections server. She said Klotz had ignored a previous email request for information “about this potential breach in election security protocol.”  [It's not a breach to copy system software, etc, rather it's insurance to ensure that it hasn't been tampered with - ED]

The possible copying occurred before system upgrades of Douglas County’s voting equipment last year designed to protect against vulnerabilities, Griswold said. She said her office does not believe “at this time” that the alleged action created “an imminent or direct security risk to Colorado’s elections.”

Klotz did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. He along with several others filed a lawsuit against Griswold in November demanding a third-party audit of Colorado’s 2020 election.

Klotz is the third Republican election clerk in Colorado associated with former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud who is under investigation for alleged breaches of state election systems. [Note the media spin here is 'Lies'  Tina Peters has photo evidence of election files deleted after Dominion's 'Trusted' build. This is more evidence of the massive cover-up under way. We'll see what the take is when Peters evodence is presented in court. - ED}

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters is being investigated by a grand jury in a breach of the system there. Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder is under scrutiny for allegedly copying his voting system’s hard drive.

Update February 22, 11:30pm - This story has been updated with a response from clerk Schroeder's lawyer.

Colorado’s Secretary of State is going to court against a second Republican county clerk over the question of what local election officials are legally allowed to do with their voting equipment.

Multiple lawsuits

The situation with Clerk Schroeder began with a lawsuit against Griswold. Among many things, the suit, which Schroeder is party to, argues that post-election software updates to the state’s voting equipment destroy ‘election records’ that clerks are required to maintain.

The updates, referred to as a ‘trusted build’ process, have become a target of conspiracy theorists pushing false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. They claim Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems used the updates to hide evidence of wrongdoing. Election software experts say data from Mesa County’s hard drive shows no evidence of that.

[Oh. really? Best look at the official report: tha doesn't agree: https://newpatriotsblog.com/bombshell-report-proves-state-and-federal-election-crimes-were-committed-colorado-county-commissioner-leaks-to-press-instead-of-reporting-crimes -ED]

On Thursday, Secretary Jena Griswold announced she is suing clerk Dallas Schroeder in an attempt to seize two copies of the county’s election equipment hard drives he made last year, and to force him to answer more questions.

Griswold is already engaged in a legal case against Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters over her involvement in the copying of that county’s election hard drives. Griswold argues Peters jeopardized election security and should be barred from overseeing this year’s vote. A third inquiry involving the Douglas County clerk was closed last week after he answered the state’s questions.

An affidavit in the lawsuit against Griswold revealed that the clerk made a full image backup of his county’s hard drives the day before the trusted build. In response to questions from the Secretary of State, Schroeder elaborated that he made the copy with only authorized employees of his office present, but had subsequently given it, and a second copy, to two outside attorneys — only one of whom he has identified — for safekeeping.

Since that point, the state and Schroeder have been in a standoff.

Griswold’s office is demanding Schroder prove that the attorneys are allowed, under Colorado election law, to possess the hard drives, and if not, to collect the drives from them; to provide evidence that the attorneys never accessed any of the information on the drives; and to turn the drives over to the state for inspection.

In response, Schroeder argues that Griswold has exceeded her authority in this case, and that the hard drive copies are official election records, which his office is required to maintain and which should be available to the public under Colorado’s open records law.

In an emailed statement, Schroeder's lawyer, John Case, defended the clerk's authority to make and preserve copies of the voting hard drives and said the goal is to force the state to explain how the tabulation machines work.

"Computerized voting systems interpret and tabulate ballots within “black boxes” designed by private companies using complex software understood only by those private companies," Case asserted. "Voting should be in secret, but counting the votes should be transparent."

Colorado requires every county to do a hand audit its ballots after each election to ensure the votes on paper match how they were recorded by the tabulation machines. After the 2020 election, Elbert County's required audit of voted ballots found no discrepancies (the same was true of Colorado's other 63 counties).

by  US Election Integrity

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters in good faith delivered an initial forensic cybersecurity report covering election machine analysis to County Commissioners. The report proves destruction of evidence. One or more Commissioners misrepresent report to the press -fail to report crimes.

1. The Destruction of evidence. Destruction of election records, election-related data that’s required to be preserved under federal and state law.
2. Thousands of election records were destroyed.
3. Secretary of State Griswold and the vendor deleted the election records.
   1. Through the “Trusted Build” hardware and software election systems update.
   1. By way of Griswold’s approved procedures for the updates.
   1. Due to Griswold’s certified election system configuration. Configurations directed by the Secretary of State were designed to automatically overwrite election data.
4. The election system was illegally certified. The report stops short of stating Griswold’s certification of the voting systems complete with an election record-destroying configuration was illegal. However, Colorado statute is explicit that the Federal Voting System Standards are mandatory. The SecState’s certification allowed the use of a non-compliant voting system in Colorado elections.
5. The deleted election records eliminate the possibility of a complete forensic election audit. The type of audit SecState Griswold has sought to prohibit by her controversial election rules which were rubber-stamped into law through CO Attorney General Phil Weiser.

It is unclear whether the Mesa County DA has sole responsibility to investigate the criminal violations. Alternatives include whether the matter must be referred to Federal authorities, the Colorado Attorney General, or every state jurisdiction affected by the technical discovery. The next outstanding question is whether Mesa County Commissioners have any liability for failing to investigate and submit the report’s findings to the authorities as required by§ 18-8-105.

In the County Commissioner’s public hearing on September 20th McInnes stepped into the breach (~25:00) claiming Peters’ report was “anonymous” insinuating there was no official report author. Instead of McInnes successfully bashing the report that clearly is proof of criminal activity, McInnes showed he didn’t completely read; or grasp the contents of the report. McInnes beclowned himself by claiming the “goal posts have been moved” as damning election malfeasance evidence piled-up in succession over months. It appears McInnes lost the plot, or doesn’t care.

In a final attempt to disparage Peters, McInnes repeated false accusations by Secretary of State Jena Griswold.  The false claim is Peters leaked passwords during her legal back up of election systems. McInnes is weak on the facts.  It was Griswold who was in sole custody of the BIOS passwords in question; she bears the responsibility to prove she or her office didn’t lose control of their passwords.  Mesa County Commissioners continue to show their fecklessness, dishonesty, and lack of understanding given the report Peters delivered was a courtesy initial version.  The official report filed in Peters defense pleadings is complete with any information Rowland, McInnes or Davis claim falsely, to be missing.

Since May, citizens across Colorado have been asking Clerks to delay the “Trusted Build” to preserve election records and afford citizens the opportunity to conduct an independent forensic audit. But the shadow emerged of a coordinated campaign by the Secretary of State and the Colorado County Clerks Association (CCCA) leadership, to deprive citizens of knowledge of the “Trusted Build” schedule, and to cajole and coerce reluctant Clerks El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman and Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes, the President of the CCCA. Both claimed in meetings with citizens that the Secretary of State’s and the Colorado Attorney General’s Offices issued formal warnings to them advising against allowing citizen access election records for audits, including electronic records generating from the Dominion voting systems; or they would be “sued.”

The result of forensic analysis of Mesa County’s system backups completely upends the accusations against Peters.  It’s now clear Griswold’s and the media’s initial characterization of Peters was patently false.  Peters acted in good faith, despite immense pressure from Griswold’s false accusations in what appears to be intentional attempts to coerce and intimidate her.

Also destroyed are current and former Secretaries of State Wayne Williams, and Griswold’s claims to “Gold Standard” security for Colorado elections. The expert report proves serious crimes were committed by Peters’ accusers and may save or implicate other Colorado County Clerks. Given this proof, County Clerks across Colorado are at risk of being responsible for election crimes simply for trusting Matt Crane the Executive Director of the CCCA, The Secretary of State Jena Griswold, and electronic voting machine vendors.

The report bears serious legal implications beyond Peters’ defense case and Griswold’s motivations to focus law enforcement resources on Peters. Now voting system vendors, the voting system testing lab, and U.S. Election Assistance Commission officials may have some explaining to do.

Share this official press release in .pdf format: for-immediate-release-9_21-_expert-reportDownload