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Judge grants temporary restraining order to Dominion CEO after threat to Denver office

Dominion CEO John Poulos said an El Paso County man was scoping out the offices and had a rifle and rifle scope in his car.

DENVER — The CEO of Dominion Voting Systems, a company that makes election voting machines, has filed a restraining order against a man he says was scoping out the company's Denver office.

A judge granted a temporary restraining order against the El Paso County man who documents say visited the Dominion office building, sought entrance to the offices, ranted about election security, and admitted to having guns in his car.

We're not naming the man because he hasn't been arrested or accused of a crime. It's also not illegal to have weapons in your car.

In signed affidavits, both Dominion CEO John Poulos and John Bronson, a Denver police sergeant, said they saw the man at the Dominion offices and saw a scope and rifle case in the back of his car on two different occasions.

RELATED: Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms

Poulos said that he was called by a Dominion employee on Sep. 23 and told not to come into the office because there was an unidentified person in the lobby who was trying to get inside.

When he got there hours later, Poulos said he went out to get the license plate number so he could contact police and saw a rifle scope and case. He then asked an employee to call the police.

While they waited for police, Poulos said he saw the man walking around and filmed him "scoping out" the Dominion building.

Bronson works part time as an independent contractor for Dominion while he's off duty, according to court documents. He said he knew about what happened on Sep. 23, and that the man tried to get into the office again on Sep. 30.

Bronson spoke to the man, who said he was just trying to get to the coffee shop in the lobby. When Bronson kept pressing him, he said the man began ranting about election security, specifically that he had a problem with a private company running elections.

RELATED: Denver judge says former Dominion Voting employee's defamation suit can proceed

Bronson said he patted the man down and didn't find anything, but that the man did say he had a pistol in his car's glovebox. Bronson said he also saw a rifle scope and what looked like two rifle cases through the back window. The man said they were for deer hunting in the Rocky Mountains. 

In his complaint, Poulos said he believes he and his employees are in "imminent danger" from the man and that he believes the man "will cause physical or emotional harm" if he's allowed at the office building. 

In Poulos' request for a restraining order, he asked for the man not to be allowed within 100 yards of the Dominion office and not to be allowed to have contact with Poulos or any other employee, including posting about Dominion on social media.

A judge granted the order and added that the man "shall not possess and/or purchase a firearm, ammunition, or other weapon."

Poulos said that since the 2020 election, Dominion has had to hire security to protect their employees from increased threats. He said those threats aren't unique to Colorado. 

RELATED: Colorado election workers increase security as threats rise before election day

There has also been an increase in security around election workers as threats against them are made prior to the November 2022 elections here in Colorado.

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