A consultant claiming to work for the White House called several Republican county clerks in Colorado last week, seeking “third-party” access to secure voting equipment, election officials told The Denver Post.
At least 10 Republican clerks were contacted by consultant Jeff Small, officials said Wednesday. Small, who has Colorado political connections, told the clerks that he was working on the project for the White House and the U.S. departments of Justice and Homeland Security, and he said he wanted the clerks to let an outside party access voting equipment to identify “gaps.”
He also requested access because President Donald Trump’s administration was frustrated with the slow rollout of an executive order issued earlier this year. Trump’s order sought greater federal control over elections, though a federal court last month blocked it.
All of the clerks contacted by Small rejected the request, election officials said. Unauthorized access to voting equipment is illegal under state law — and for some clerks, the request immediately prompted thoughts that it amounted to the type of conduct that sank former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who’s now serving a prison sentence.
“I’m sitting here going, ‘There’s a person spending nine years in prison here in Colorado for doing the exact same thing,’ ” said Steve Schleiker, the clerk and recorder in El Paso County.
Small connected Schleiker with a Homeland Security official, who sought access that Schleiker likened to hacking into voting equipment.
Justin Grantham, the clerk and recorder in Fremont County, said Small called him July 9 and was “looking for Republican clerks in Democratic states that would be willing to work with the White House and the Department of Justice, for bringing a third party to evaluate the security” of voting equipment.
All of the clerks contacted use Dominion Voting Systems voting machines, said Matt Crane, the executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association. Dominion has been the target of extensive — and repeatedly debunked — claims of interfering with the 2020 election, which Trump lost.
Small also works for the 76 Group, a prominent conservative public affairs firm based in Denver, and earlier was the chief of staff for Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. His calls to the clerks were first reported Wednesday morning by the Washington Post.
In a statement to The Denver Post, Small said Wednesday that he was approached by “officials working on the President’s executive order to improve election security,” and they asked him “to connect them with a few local county clerks to get their input on this important effort.”
He was happy to do so, he said, because of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s “security debacles.” He said he was not paid for the outreach, calling it a “volunteer connection effort” that he did in his spare time.
Small declined to answer follow-up questions by phone and did not immediately respond to written questions.
The effort alarmed election officials, and in a letter sent to clerks last week, Crane said that no one had complied with the request. He noted that “inviting a third party to examine a Colorado voting system is a violation of state law.”
In an interview, Griswold said that, to her knowledge, no one had contacted Republican clerks in any other Democratic state seeking similar access. The Department of Justice had previously sent Griswold’s office a request for extensive voting data, also unique among states.
Griswold, a Democrat and the state’s top election official, said anyone seeking access to equipment must get clearance, including through a background check, and they must agree to several security protocols.
“It could lead to a felony conviction and imprisonment,” she said of Small’s request for third-party access. “That’s where unauthorized access to voting equipment leads. It leads to counties, where that happens, having to spend a lot of money to replace their voting equipment and face potential criminal liability.”
Before working for Boebert, Small was appointed by Trump to work in the U.S. Department of the Interior. He joined the 76 Group earlier this year, according to Colorado Politics.
Small is also a registered federal lobbyist whose clients include four Colorado counties — including at least one that he contacted as part of his quest for access to election equipment.
Boebert’s office did not return a message seeking comment. Nor did Josh Penry, the head of the 76 Group. Natalie Baldassarre, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, declined to comment. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson referred questions about Small to the Department of Homeland Security.
In a statement, an unnamed spokesperson for Homeland Security said that the agency daily “works with our local partners to make sure our elections remain safe. We don’t disclose every single conversation we have with them.”
Schleiker said Small called him July 9. They spoke briefly, and Small complimented El Paso County on its election integrity efforts. With Schleiker’s permission, Small gave the clerk’s phone number to an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of Homeland Security. That official then called, “looking for partners to test the election voting equipment to see if there’s any gaps.”
“I was like, ‘Oh,’ ” Schleiker said. The federal government has no jurisdiction over local voting equipment, he said, and he told the official to call the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office or the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
“El Paso County is in a very unique position because we’re the most populous county, we have the most active voters — we’re just shy of 511,000 active voters — so the most in the state, and we’re still considered pretty conservative,” Schleiker said. “And with this administration — (it was likely a matter of) ‘Hey, let’s reach out to the largest and most conservative county,’ which is El Paso.
“But the thing is: No. Uh-uh. Not at all. ”
However, in a call that same day, Small told Grantham, in Fremont County, that El Paso County had agreed to provide access to equipment, Grantham said.
“I knew (El Paso County was) not on board, but what he told me was they’re on board — like, if one goes, all should go,” Grantham said. “I knew better.”
Crane, the head of the clerks association, said clerks began calling him about Small’s outreach last week. Crane said Small told some clerks that he was working on behalf of Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and a prominent booster of Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Dominion was also mentioned in one of the calls, Crane said.
Grantham said he suspected that the administration might have thought other Republican clerks in Colorado shared Peters’ beliefs and could be willing to grant access to voting equipment.
But clerks have been “resolute” in refusing Small’s request, Crane said.
“I’m not aware of anything in federal law that would give them the ability to do this,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the greatest cyber ninjas or some guy in a basement — or the federal government. If they don’t have a legal reason to be near these systems, they’re not getting near these systems.”
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