Montana Audit Shows "'Unexplained Irregularities' Found In Large No Of Ballots"

[G.L.R.]

'Unexplained irregularities' found in large percentage of ballots

March 24, 2021

A mountainous, 2,600-square-mile region with a population of approximately 119,600 does not seem like your prototypical setting for machine politics.

Yet a recent audit of mail-in ballots cast there found irregularities on a level that could have easily swung local elections in 2020, and statewide elections in cycles past. The story at hand begins during the pandemic summer of 2020, when the then-governor, Democrat Steve Bullock, issued a directive permitting counties to conduct the general election fully by mail. In the run-up to the election, a court also struck down Montana's law aimed at preventing ballot harvesting. Missoula, Montana's second most populous county and one of its most heavily Democratic, opted in to the universal vote-by-mail regime. In response, in October 2020, several county residents with experience targeting election integrity issues formed a group to ensure the legitimacy of the 2020 vote. The members contended that Missoula County had shown anomalies in elections past.

In November, the group approached state Rep. Brad Tschida, a Republican, to formally take up the issue. The audit consisted of both a count and review of all ballot envelopes and comparing that to the number of officially recorded votes during the Nov. 3, 2020, general election. Its conclusions were troubling: 4,592 out of the 72,491 mail-in ballots lacked envelopes— 6.33% of all votes. Without an officially printed envelope with registration information, a voter's signature, and a postmark indicating whether it was cast on time, election officials cannot verify that a ballot is legitimate. It is against the law to count such votes. What's more, according to auditors, county employees claimed that during the post-election audit, some of the envelopes may have been double-counted, possibly indicating an even higher number of missing envelopes. Of these, 55 lacked postmark dates, and 53 never had their signatures checked — for a total of 0.7% of all ballots in the sample. Dozens of ballot envelopes bore strikingly similar, distinctive handwriting styles in the signatures, suggesting that one or several persons may have filled out and submitted multiple ballots ...

One auditor asserted that of 28 envelopes reviewed from the same address, a nursing home, all 28 signatures looked "exactly the same" stylistically. Another auditor reported that among the envelopes she reviewed, two very unique signatures appeared dozens of times ... Auditors were unable to conduct a more comprehensive count because, they say, Missoula County elections officials refused to permit them to take pictures of the signatures ... The county elections office did not provide access to video footage it claimed to have recorded of vote-counting activities. Finally, Seaman explained the 4,592 ballots without envelopes found in the audit as a discrepancy due to the lack of a "double-check process."... The magnitude of defective — and potentially fraudulently cast — ballots identified during the Missoula County ballot audit is particularly troubling given the small margins by which local 2020 elections were decided, and previous statewide elections have been decided. The 2020 local House District 94 race was determined by 435 votes; that of local House District 96, a mere 190. The Missoula audit appeared unprecedented in auditing all ballot envelopes. What comes next for Missoula County, given the discrepancies identified? State authorities say they are concerned about the findings, and may well take them up in a joint hearing of the Montana Senate and House judiciary committees.

'Unexplained irregularities' found in large percentage of ballots
https://www.wnd.com/2021/03/unexplained-irregularities-found-large-percentage-ballots