Judge Orders Elbert County Clerk To Turn Over Copies Of Voting Hard Drives To Secretary Of State

DENVER (AP) — A judge has ordered a county clerk who copied his voting system's hard drives to turn over his copies to Colorado's secretary of state by the end of the day Wednesday. Secretary of State Jena Griswold sued to force Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder to turn over the external hard drives containing the copies and Judge Gary M. Kramer ruled late Friday that Schroeder must follow her lawful orders.

Kramer also ordered Schroeder to answer Griswold's questions about who has had access to the copies in filings.

It's one of a handful of cases across the United States in which authorities are investigating whether local officials directed or aided in suspected security breaches at their own election offices. Some of them have expressed doubt about the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Schroeder's lawyer, John Case, declined to comment on the order Monday.

Schroeder has said he copied the hard drives because he wanted to preserve the results of the 2020 election. He first made a copy of the hard drives of the election server, the image cast central computers and the adjudication computer before the state updated voting software and then made a copy of that copy soon after.

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press