Secretary of State Jena Griswold is investigating a second Republican county clerk in Colorado for an alleged breach of security protocols for Dominion Voting System equipment, this time in Elbert County.

Griswold sent a subpoena and election order to Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder, according to a statement Monday from her office.

“My office became aware of a potential breach of election security protocols in Elbert County,” Griswold’s statement said. The Elbert County clerk “has failed to respond to both an email request and an Election Order requiring disclosure of information about this potential breach. That is why I am now taking further action.”

The statement said the Secretary of State’s office 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.

Schroeder has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Similar to Mesa County, Elbert County voters overwhelmingly supported former President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2020 election. Trump won the county with 7,424 votes to President Joe Biden’s 612 votes. 

The breach alleged took place sometime prior to Aug. 27, 2021. According to Griswold’s statement, Schroeder made “an image of the voting system hard drive,” made by Dominion, although the affidavit did not disclose how the copy was made or what security measures were in place at the time.

The Secretary of State’s office reached out to Schroeder via email, asking him how that copy was made and to verify that there was no security risk to the system. Schroeder did not respond. The office then followed up with an election order “requiring the disclosure of information regarding the unauthorized copying of the voting system hard drive, requiring that video surveillance of voting equipment be activated, and that no one access the voting equipment unaccompanied.”

Schroeder failed to respond to that order as well, the statement said. 

Griswold has now ordered Schroeder to appear for a deposition, where he will be asked to testify about how the copy of the voting system hard drive was created. That order was accompanied by a subpoena for Schroeder and for his staff. 

The breach took place prior to the 2021 “trusted build” of Elbert County’s 2021 voting equipment, which included an update to the system.

Griswold’s statement said she did not believe the unauthorized copying created a security risk to Colorado’s elections, although the statement did not say whether it created the potential for a security risk to Elbert County’s voting systems.

Schroeder has been the Clerk and Recorder for Elbert County for two terms, beginning in 2019. He is a candidate for the Elbert County Board of County Commissioners later this year.

He’s also no stranger to controversy. In 2015, he hung a poster above a desk where marriage licenses are issued stating that marriage was between one man and one woman and citing the Bible. It led to claims that the poster violated the separation of church and state. According to KMGH, Schroeder sent an email to several other county clerks, stating that his thought process was that citizens had to see the poster. “

“And if they choose to violate God’s written Word, then that is on their head,” he said.

The poster was later removed from public display.

This story is developing and will be updated.