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.”