KGVO: Election Integrity Lawsuit filed against Missoula County Office
KGVO-AM radio in Missoula had this story.
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The Missoula County Election Integrity Project and John Lott, Ph.D. have filed a lawsuit in Missoula District Court against the Missoula County Elections Office and Bradley Seaman in his official capacity as Elections Administrator.
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The gist of the lawsuit ‘enjoins Defendants from their systematic practice of destroying video, data, and documentary election records. It is, therefore, a request for prospective relief. 2. Upon information and belief, the Missoula Elections Office installed video recording device(s) (hereinafter referred to as the “vote count video”) for the 2020 election cycle in the vote count room to ensure election transparency and public trust in the elections process.
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KGVO reached out to John Lott to explain the purpose of the legal action.
“We’ve had two recounts of the envelopes that were used in the all mail-in election that we had on November 3, 2020, and they’ve gotten very different counts,” began Lott. “One had 6.3% more votes counted than envelopes which, in an all mail-in election, is impossible basically or shouldn’t happen.”
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Lott said there was another recount of the 2020 election ballots.
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“There was another recount where the difference was 70 some,” he said. “Two more ballot boxes were discovered after about 16 months or so, which had more envelopes in them. But you know, either they misplaced the boxes of envelopes or some people have claimed something more nefarious has happened.”
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Lott said at the heart of the dispute is the failure of the County Elections Office to store and protect the video evidence of the actual vote count on Election Night.
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“We really shouldn’t have to have a debate about this stuff,” he said. “If they had kept the video records that they’re required to do under federal law for 22 months, then one could simply go and watch. Once the discrepancy was discovered, simply go and watch the video and count the number of times that they opened envelopes on election night. Unfortunately, the county erased the video and the county records don’t require them to keep them that long.”
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Lott said he and the other litigants with the Missoula County Election Integrity Project believe the basic issue is a lack of transparency when it comes to the video record.
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“This is just a transparency issue,” he said. “Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or Independent, it’s just important that Missoula keep the records so that people can check to see what happens. I’m not saying that anything happened, and I’m not saying that any election outcome would have been changed. But when you’re talking about the possibility of an error that could be 6.3 percent of the total votes in the county, it’s at least something that people should have confidence in.”
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See the lawsuit here.
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In response, KGVO reached out to Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman for his comments on the issue.
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“We can’t comment on ongoing litigation against the county, but transparency is critically important,” said Seaman. “And that’s why we maintain a 100 percent transparent process around elections to help educate people on the way elections truly function. That’s why we encourage anybody to come by at any point in time and have held public tours, while we make sure to send out press releases to media outlets like yourself, to candidates to elected officials, and members of the public, so that they can see how elections truly function.” . . .
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