Colorado Secretary of State’s Office Concludes Investigation of a Potential Breach in Security Protocol in Douglas County

Denver, February 10, 2022 - Today, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold released the following statement regarding the investigation of a potential breach of security protocols for voting system equipment in Douglas County.

“After receiving responses from Douglas County, my office is satisfied that there is no current threat to the county’s election system. We have concluded our investigation,” said Secretary Jena Griswold. “As Secretary of State I will always do what is required to ensure that every Colorado voter, no matter their political affiliation, zip code, or amount of money in their bank account can make their voice heard in accessible and secure elections.”

On January 28, 2022, the Secretary of State’s Office became aware of a potential security protocol breach when it was alerted to a social media post attributed to Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz, which asserts that Clerk Klotz stated that “we, as always, took a full image backup of our server before a trusted build was done this year.” On January 28, 2022, the Secretary of State’s Office emailed the clerk for information. After receiving no response, on February 3, 2022, the Secretary of State sent an Order to Clerk Klotz requiring the disclosure of information regarding the potential copying of the election server, requiring that video surveillance of voting equipment be activated, and that no one access the voting equipment unaccompanied.

On February 8, 2022, the County Attorney’s Office for Douglas County provided a response on behalf of Douglas County, with a signed statement from both Douglas County Clerk Klotz and Douglas County Deputy Clerk for Elections Jack Twite and a direct letter from Clerk Klotz himself. Douglas County’s submissions attest that Clerk Klotz has not had access to the voting equipment. Only specifically designated and authorized County elections staff have had access to the hardware components of Douglas County’s Election Systems. All individuals with authorized access were contacted, and confirmed that no images of the hard drives were created by them and that no unauthorized person has had physical or system access of any kind at any time.

Douglas County has further confirmed that the premises where the County’s voting system hardware is kept are secured 24/7 with only one card-controlled access, and after reviewing a full year’s worth of access records, the county reported that it “detected no unauthorized access.” The county confirmed that because no unauthorized access was granted to the voting equipment at any time, “we believe that no such images could have been created.” Similarly, Douglas County Clerk Klotz recanted his statement that an image was created.

The Douglas County investigation concluded that neither Clerk Klotz nor any third person had access to create unauthorized images.

The information provided by Douglas County has satisfied the February 3, 2022 Order and the Secretary of State Office’s investigation into the potential breach in election security protocol has concluded.