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

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 Joe Hoft

Colorado’s corrupt Soros-backed Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, is back at it attacking Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, Tina Peters. 

Peters caught Griswold attempting to force counties in the state to erase 2020 Election data from voting machines which is against the law.

Earlier last year, the Secretary of State in Colorado, Jena Griswold, demanded each county in the state erase the voting machines.  Griswold claimed this was necessary.  But it was also against the law.  Election material by law should be retained for 22 months.

Rather than comply with the illegal action, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, Tina Peters, made a copy of her county’s machines before performing the action.  This was the right thing to do.

Griswold got on NPR to criticize Ms. Peters and The Gateway Pundit for reporting on Griswold’s request to destroy 2020 Election data.

In the interview, Griswold used a so-called ‘Republican’ as her expert.  This man is married to a longtime employee of Dominion Voting Machines and was no independent election observer proving again that NPR is a biased far-left media outlet feeding off of the American taxpayer.