Alexandra Ulmer, Tim Reid

(Reuters) – Two men connected to conspiracy groups sued a Colorado election clerk for copying data from voting machines. They claimed that the stolen 2020 election result was the work of former Republican President Donald Trump.

    Dallas Schroeder, who oversees elections in Elbert County, east of Denver, was sued by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold for making two copies of his county’s voting system hard drives and then handing the images to “unauthorized people”, according to the lawsuit.

Griswold asks that Schroeder returns the copies to Elbert County District Court and gives him the original device he used for making them.

    Schroeder is the second Colorado elections clerk to come under scrutiny for allegedly breaching voting systems as part of an “election integrity” effort by Trump supporters who falsely claim the 2020 election was marred by fraud. In other states like Michigan, authorities are investigating suspected breaches. Last week, they said that an unidentified third party was granted unauthorized access.

    In August, the FBI opened an investigation into a suspected security breach of voting equipment in Mesa County in western Colorado. Griswold is a Democrat and Tina Peters has been accused of facilitating this breach.

    Peters and Schroeder, both Republicans, have denied any wrongdoing.

Peters declared Monday that she would be running for Colorado Secretary-of-State.

    In a January court filing, Schroeder said he made copies of his county’s voting system hard drives last August.

    He said he was “provided instructions” on the phone by Shawn Smith and Mark Cook, prominent election-denial activists, and used a device provided by Cook.

    Smith and Cook are associates of Mike Lindell, the pro-Trump chief executive of My Pillow Inc., and an election conspiracist.

    Schroeder said he gave the hard drive copies to his attorney, John Case, and another unnamed attorney. According to Schroeder, he made copies of the data to protect election records prior to a planned update to the system. Schroeder has also filed suit against Griswold to demand an audit of 2020 results.

Jocelyn Benson (Democratic Secretary of State) claimed that unidentified third parties were able to gain unauthorized access in Michigan’s county voting systems last week.