Group asks county commissioners to add hand counting of ballots

by Michael Howell

The Ravalli County Republican Central Committee (RCRCC) wants to place an initiative on the upcoming primary ballot that would require a hand count of all the ballots on top of the regular vote counting process using tabulator machines. With time running short to get the issue on the June ballot, Republican State Senator Theresa Manzella (SD-44) a few weeks ago urged the Ravalli County Commissioners to place the issue on the ballot themselves and fast track the process. The all-Republican Board of County Commissioners, however, declined to take any action themselves, stating that in their opinion the petition’s goal of establishing a mandatory hand count of the votes was misplaced. The Commissioners argued that the vote tabulators had been checked by comparison to the county’s own hand counts and found to be dependable and that the RCRCC should be looking at the voter rolls for potential fraud instead.

Robert Wallace, state committeeman for the RCRCC, told the commissioners, “Although there are no reports of inaccuracies connected to the election process in Ravalli County and the current voting process using machines instead of the hand ballot system, it has caused a great deal of scrutiny since 2020. The fact is that Ravalli citizens have lost faith in the election process, expressing mistrust and questionable vulnerabilities, stirring discontent and frustrations. No amount of appeasement will repair the faith and trust that has been lost.”

Wallace said that the current arrangement between the local county election administrator and the Election Administration Commission (EAC) leaves the voters out. He said that he appreciated Ravalli County Election Administrator Regina “Plettenberg’s willingness to share her knowledge and experience with the system and training as needed, but we the people of Ravalli County seek a greater role and involvement in the oversight of our election process. We propose not only the machine voting and recording system but also a hand count system.”

“Having a check and balance verification would substantiate transparency and provide cooperation and 100% auditability,” said Wallace. “We believe that this oversight of the election process by the citizens and elected officials could become the well managed and accountable and efficient transparency system for Ravalli County. We, together with elected servants, could take responsibility for restoring confidence in our elective process.”

“We are aware nationally of the trouble with our electoral process,” he said. “We are not coming to kind of accuse our officials, we are just distrustful of the machines. We are not here to cause trouble. We are not here to yell at you guys. We come willing to help. We have volunteers willing to help you out.” He asked the commissioners to “expedite their role in the process if they could.”

State Senator Theresa Manzella (R-Hamilton), said, “The two things I hear most about from my constituents are about election security and property taxes. The  election security issue has been at the top of the list since the 2020 elections and I have invested countless hours into trying to understand the process at the state and federal level and have identified what I believe to be some vulnerabilities that I hope we can address through legislation. But we are blessed here in Montana to have the ability to use hand counts here and establish Ravalli County as the ‘gold standard ‘ for election security in the state.”

“I think it is very possible that Ravalli County  has the best practices in the state,”  she said. “However, I have identified areas where we don’t align with EAC guidelines and I believe there are lots of people willing to be involved in this election process and it would give them the opportunity to see and engage with and help restore faith in our process and I think we all share in that desire.”

Manzella told the commissioners they had enough volunteers to conduct the hand count at no additional cost to the county. She said a county in Arizona had done this with 2,500 ballots counted in 69 minutes by a 100-person team with four persons per team at a cost of less than a hundred dollars per station, including a camera.

“If you are not tuned into alternative media you are probably not aware of the incredible amount of evidence that is bubbling to the surface over the country,” said Manzella. “I have accumulated now thousands of links that I would be happy to share with you if you are interested. Georgia is a hot spot. This is not going away and I believe it behooves all of us to get in front of it.” She asked the commissioners to fast track the process so that they could have a full 90 days to gather the required 5,200 signatures to place it on the ballot.

She also invited the commissioners to attend a meeting scheduled by the RCRCC on April 6th and 7th to hear keynote speakers Matt Rosendale and Professor David Clements. She said Clements was the producer of the video “Let My People Go,” calling it a good overview of election security vulnerabilities across the country. 

Commissioner Jeff Burrows recalled a recent meeting in July when they heard from a Dr. Frank about election fraud. 

“We had a discussion about machine tabulators and possible inconsistencies and what he said was that the voter rolls are where vulnerabilities were detected, not machines,” said Burrows. He said Frank said he was going to do an investigation into the Ravalli County voter rolls and said he’d never done an investigation and not found a stack of inconsistencies with voter rolls. “I’m wondering where he’s at with that commitment he made to me. If he brings me back a stack of invalid, inconsistent illegal voters, we’ll be having a public meeting on that. My question is, what’s the status of the investigation that he told me he was going to conduct?”

“I asked him about that after receiving your text,” Manzella said, “and he doesn’t remember saying that and I don’t remember him saying that and Greg doesn’t remember him saying that.” 

“I have trouble with that,” said Burrows. “He absolutely said that voter rolls was the problem and not the tabulating machines.”

Manzella said that their data analyst has found inconsistencies on the voter rolls and she was hoping that he would be there but was traveling from Butte and had not arrived. She said that data analysis was the first step in restoring the faith of the voters, “but we need all the numbers to conduct that.”

“I can’t speak for Dr. Frank,” she added. “I don’t remember hearing what you claim but I do remember inviting you to our meeting which you didn’t attend, but according to our data analyst we have six dead voters who have been on the rolls for a long time.”

“Since we transferred to the new system, Elect Montana, a lot of our voter history has been corrupted,” said Manzella, “and that makes it very hard to go back and do an audit because the eligibility dates have been either advanced 80 years or been degraded in some way and compromised or recessed 80 years. So there are anomalies that need to be addressed. We have spent the $5,000  to get the state voter roll subscription and we are downloading them regularly to analyze them. Because one of the ways that has been presented for the fraudulent voters is through the injection of phantom voters. So, we can keep track of that and are working on the voter roll aspect.”

Burrows said, “The data that comes out of your groups is so cryptic and then you say it can’t be released right away. If you have six voters that are dead, why can’t you just bring them to us?” He said it would be an easy fix if they had the names.

Regina Plettenberg, Ravalli County Clerk & Recorder and Election Administrator,  said, “If there are six people, I just need the names and I’ll look into it. But I never get any information. It’s just frustrating.”

“Because we are all in a learning curve,” said Manzella. “We were all caught flat-footed in 2020. I was caught flat-footed. I had not a clue. Have you seen the Rasmussen report that indicates that 1 in 5 mail-in ballots had some level of fraud attached to it? And that over 60% of Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen? It’s not just us, it is a nationwide concern.”

Commissioner Greg Chilcott said that the county had done recounts and validated that the tabulators were validated and any problem had to be with the voter rolls and that the county was working hard on keeping them updated. He said that volunteer help was only theoretical, “but I see a state law saying all costs will be borne by the county.  So if volunteers don’t show up and we have a mandate to do a hand count, and we have a thousand people to pay by the hour to do those counts, that’s property tax money that’s being spent. You are asking us to do something and it’s not about what the real problem is, which is the voter rolls.”

Manzella said that she had watched the county’s audit and “we can identify many, many areas where it is inaccurate to be considered an actual audit. No disrespect.”

Asked by Chilcott what those areas were, Manzella said, “The cameras were moved off so you couldn’t watch. There are numerous issues. Every station needs a camera overhead.”

Burrows said that if there were such serious concerns, she should have come down to watch in person. “You had the chance to be there. You need to sit in your living room and watch the process on TV?”

“The citizens need that,” said Manzella. “Our citizens do not trust the process and we need a process that can stand up to scrutiny. We need a chain of custody that is bullet proof. Arguing with me and trying to guilt and shame me for not being there is not going anywhere. I don’t want to create an embarrassing situation but if you want me to I can. We are not in compliance with federal law and are not in compliance with EAC guidelines.”

Burrows said she needed to come down and witness the process, adding, “People who do have learned how it works and appreciate it. Many thought we used voting machines. When they learned we don’t use them and saw how it works, they said ‘you have a damned good system.’”

“But it’s not good enough,” Manzella replied. She also complained about lack of access to the Cast Vote records and stated there was no chain of custody requirement in state law.

“But we have one here. And you can see it,” said Burrows.

Manzella then asked, “Is every seal signed by two people?”

“Yes,” said Burrows. “Like I said, you don’t even know our process. You come in here and you are the legislator and you bring these national issues to us but you don’t come down to see how we do it.”

“We are following state law,” said Chilcott. “You are a state legislator. If you don’t like the damn law, change it.”

“I’m only one person,” said Manzella.

Plettenberg explained the election count process in detail and other members of the public then spoke.

Tom Round, a member of the RCRCC, spoke as “a citizen and county resident for 47 years,” saying that he wasn’t questioning the integrity of anyone and thought they were doing the best job possible. “But I have to agree with Theresa. We have the chance to be the gold standard.” He said the voter rolls were a problem but so were mail-in ballots. He said the petition to do the hand count could be taken as “symbolic” but it was a symbolic statement the commissioners should support.

Kim Dailey said that they were ready to teach the Missouri hand count method and that they had the volunteers to do it as well as the money required for tally sheets, if necessary. She said that no permission was needed from anyone to do it since it is already being done in 10 counties.

Plettenberg stated that it was probably too late to try and get it on the primary ballot.

Manzella reiterated that the commissioners could pass an ordinance to place it on the ballot.

Plettenberg said that it made more sense to have it go through the signature gathering process for a public initiative to be sure that it was something of general concern, rather than just a concern of a small group of RCRCC members. Unfortunately, she said, the process at this point for processing the petition through her office and getting it through the legal review process done by the County Attorney’s Office and then getting signatures was not practically feasible but it could certainly be done in time for the November election.

Commission Chair Dan Huls said, “Personally I do not believe that the 2020 election on the national level was legitimate… But I want to emphasize that our elections in Ravalli County are the ‘gold standard’ for Montana. We have really, really good elections. I have been a courier to bring ballots from Stevensville to Florence for several years and the way that’s done is every ‘t’ is crossed and every ‘i’ is dotted. We count the ballots. We know what’s in the box. We know the seal’s on the box. We always work in two’s and the boxes never leave our person. They are in our possession every minute. So I just want to say that our system in Ravalli County is the gold standard currently. Could we make it better? Probably. But it is currently the best.”

The meeting ended with no action taken.