Missoula County GOP pays for envelope count to disprove voter fraud

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana county Republican organization is paying to have election officials recount envelopes from the November 2020 election in an attempt to alleviate voter concerns after a private group claimed its own count found nearly 4,600 more votes than envelopes in the election held by mail due to the pandemic.

It is the latest example of the fallout from unfounded allegations of voter fraud made by former President Donald Trump and his allies after he lost. The allegations sparked the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Jan. 6, 2021, and were used as the reason to change election laws around the country.

The Missoula County Republican Central Committee is paying up to $5,000 for a count of the affirmation envelopes, said Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman. Central committee members are observing the count, which began Monday and is expected to finish Tuesday.

The central committee has said it asked for the count because it heard from citizens who said they were not going to cast ballots due to allegations of voter fraud.

The Montana Election Integrity Project said its January 2021 envelope count came up nearly 4,600 short of the nearly 72,500 votes cast in Missoula County — a number that was within the margin of victory in more than a dozen legislative races in the county.

County elections officials told the organization it could challenge the election results in court, and reminded them as the deadline to file a challenge neared, but they did not follow through, Seaman said.

This week's count will have no effect on election results, but may help the central committee "put this to bed," Seaman said.

Seaman has defended his office's integrity in compiling the results of the 2020 General Election.

Voice messages left seeking comment from the Missoula County Republican Central Committee and Republican Rep. Brad Tschida — a member of the election integrity group — were not immediately returned Tuesday. Quentin Rhoades, an attorney for the election integrity group, said he would comment after the count was complete.

Montana's 2021 Legislature — with a two-thirds Republican majority — passed laws to end Election Day voter registration, to ban the paid collection of voted ballots and to require college students to provide additional identifying information if they want to use a student ID to register and vote. District Judge Michael Moses heard arguments against those laws earlier this month.