The Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday adopted temporary election rules, including limiting access by elected officials to rooms with voting equipment and prohibiting the copying of hard drive images without prior approval by the Department of State.

In a statement, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said the temporary rules are necessary following security protocol breaches and violations of election rules her office alleged to have occurred in Mesa County and Elbert County.

“Every Colorado voter, Republican, Democrat, and unaffiliated alike, deserves accessible and secure elections. As Secretary of State, I will always protect the integrity of our election system,” Griswold said. “These rules address emerging security risks and will reinforce Colorado’s national leadership in election security.”

Notably, the temporary rules say any individual prohibited from having physical contact with any voting equipment is barred from accessing a room that contains voting equipment – unless accompanied by one or more individuals with authorized access. Griswold’s office said for counties with a population of more than 100,000, elected officials may not enter a room with voting equipment alone. Previously, only physically accessing equipment was restricted.

The new rules also restrict administrative access to election management systems to four users – previously, up to 10 were authorized; create additional requirements for passwords and user accounts for voting system equipment; and disallow unattended voting system component to remain unsealed at any point after officially sanctioned software updates.

Grisworld’s office arrived at the temporary rules following allegations of security breaches at two counties.

The Secretary of State’s Office’s investigation into a third county concluded that no breach took place. In this case, Douglas County’s top election official did not have access to voting equipment and individuals with authorized access did not create any hard drive images, the county told Griswold’s office.

“After receiving responses from Douglas County, my office is satisfied that there is no current threat to the county’s election system,” Secretary Jena Griswold said. “We have concluded our investigation.”

Griswold said her office received a signed statement from Douglas County Clerk Klotz and Douglas County Deputy Clerk for Elections Jack Twite, as well as another missive from Klotz.

The county said Klotz, a Republican, had not had access to the voting equipment, that only designated county elections staffers did, and those individuals confirmed no images of the hard drives were created by them and no unauthorized person had physical or system access of any kind at any time, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, citing the response from Douglas County. 

The county also confirmed the premises where its voting system hardware is located are highly secured, and, after reviewing one year’s worth of access records, it “detected no unauthorized access,” the Secretary of State’s Office said, again citing county documents.

Notably, the county said, Klotz recanted his statement that an image had been created. 

Griswold earlier wanted to know if Klotz took images of hard drives outside of any officially-sanctioned activity. She said her office was alerted to a social media post attributed to Klotz and posted last fall that said “a full image backup of our server before a trusted build was done this year.” She said her office initially sent questions to Klotz but did not receive any answers. 

Griswold’s office then issued an official order demanding the county clerk and recorder answer a slew of questions, notably when the images of hard drives were created, how many copies were made, who was present during the act, and who has access to the copies.

The state official also wants to know whether MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell or his representative contacted Klotz regarding the imaging or over “any activity that would breach Colorado election rule, procedure, or law.” Griswold’s office said the social media post attributed to Klotz said he submitted comments to the  Lindell legal team about log files and voting equipment passwords.  

In an email, Klotz declined to comment, telling Colorado Politics he’s not free to discuss the case as it’s related to litigation involving Griswold.

Klotz is one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Griswold last November. The other plaintiffs are state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City; Rio Blanco County Commissioners Jeff Rector and Gary Moyer, Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder and Park County Commissioner Amy Mitchell.

Douglas County is the third county under Griswold’s scrutiny for similar reasons. She sent an election order to Schroeder last month, also demanding answers after becoming aware of a potential security protocol breach from an affidavit Schroeder submitted, 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.”  

In response to the order, Schroeder, a Republican, said he 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, including his personal counsel.

Schroeder defended his actions, saying 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.”

Last year, Griswold launched an inquiry into whether Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, the county’s highest election officer, allowed an unauthorized person to record the procedure, including images of screens that showed system passwords. Images of the passwords to some of Mesa County’s voting system hardware surfaced online.