With Montana voters now receiving mail-in ballots for the June 5th primary election, Media Trackers Montana is receiving reports of significant ballot errors across the state. Unconfirmed reports placed possible statewide errors in the thousands, with a possible 600 erroneous ballots being reported in Broadwater County alone.
Secretary of State, Democrat Linda McCulloch, who administers all elections in the state of Montana, received a request today from Scott Aspenlieder- the presumed Republican frontrunner to challenge McCulloch in November- calling for a full audit of all mail in ballots across the state.
“On top of being sent invalid ballots, voters in Broadwater County’s precinct 11 are now forced to endure the confusion of having a second ballot mailed to their homes,” said Aspenlieder. “Then in Yellowstone County, we find out some voters were only sent one party’s Primary ballot, eliminating their right to choose the candidates they’d like to support. This failure of leadership is simply unacceptable, and Montanans deserve better. I call on our Secretary of State to begin a comprehensive audit of all of the 2012 absentee ballots to identify every single error, and immediately take steps to fix this process so a Montanan’s right to vote is never threatened again,” stated Aspenlieder.
A Media Trackers inquiry found state political officials in disarray; struggling to cope with the possible size of the damage. “Everywhere we are looking across the state, we are finding inconsistencies. Even on the Secretary of State’s website, the sample ballots are wrong” stated one high ranking official who asked not to be named. “About half of all Montanans vote by mail. With one of the top U.S. Senate races in the nation going on in this state and dozens of other hotly contested races on the ballot, this thing could have voter fraud written all over it.”
Media Trackers will continue to monitor this story and provide breaking updated developments.
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