Rogue county officials spark fear of growing ‘insider’ threats to elections – By Jane C. Timm and Allan Smith (NBC News) / March 14, 2022
Colorado Democrats will announce legislation Monday that would give the secretary of state new powers while subjecting local election officials to new penalties for wrongdoing.
Last August, Dallas Schroeder entered a secure facility in Elbert County, Colorado, and copied computers and hard drives that contained election and voter data.
Schroeder did so while on the phone with a pair of election denial activists who guided him through using a “forensic imager” device that retails for roughly $4,100, he later told Secretary of State Jena Griswold through his attorney, according to a copy of written responses provided to NBC News by Griswold’s office.
But Schroeder, the Republican clerk and recorder who oversees the county’s elections, didn’t need anyone’s help gaining access to the facility: he used his key card.
“The vast majority of both Republican and Democratic county elections officials do a wonderful job, but we are seeing these bad actors,” said Griswold, a Democrat who launched an investigation into the incident involving Schroeder in January and later filed a lawsuit alleging he gave sensitive elections data to an unauthorized individual.
