(The Center Square) – Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Thursday that her office is moving forward with a lawsuit to compel Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder to provide material evidence concerning her investigation of the county’s election system. 

Griswold previously filed two orders requiring Schroeder to disclose where copies of the county’s election hard drives are being kept. Her office has alleged that copies of the county's voting system hard drives ended up in unauthorized hands.  

“Critical information regarding the unauthorized imaging of Elbert County’s voting system hard drives has not been disclosed by Clerk Schroeder and the copies of the hard drives still are in the hands of unauthorized people,” Griswold said Thursday. 

The lawsuit seeks to force Schroeder to turn over documentation concerning the matter. 

Griswold added that Schroeder has provided some answers to her previous orders, but the answers provided raised more questions that are pertinent to her investigation. 

For example, Schroeder previously said that he removed two hard drives from the server, then two individuals – both of whom were not authorized under Colorado’s election rules to work on the trusted build event – gave Schroeder instructions by phone about how to make copies. 

The answers went on to say that the hard drive copies ended up in the hands of someone only identified as a “private attorney.” 

The lawsuit says that Schroeder’s failure to comply with the orders has “created a risk that the copies of Elbert County’s voting system hard drives may be exploited to undermine confidence in Colorado’s secure elections.”