Carbon County is currently investigating claims of ballot sabotage on November 8th.
All this started with a complaint made by a poll observer.
First reported by the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office. It was given to the Red Lodge Police Department.
One poll worker claims he witnessed election material being shredded on county surveillance video.
Carbon County poll watcher Chip Bennett is concerned by the video and has begun asking questions.
It was captured by the county’s security cameras at the election office on Nov. 8.
“We see our election administrator destroying what appears to us as absentee ballots,” Lisa Bennett, Chip’s spouse, said.
She claims the video is partially blocked by a privacy screen, but she states that 21 batches of documents are being processed through a shredder.
Bennett stated, “We know there are multiple pages being read.” “We don’t know how many pages she’s counting,” Bennett said.
The Bennetts reached out to the county and filed an official complaint.
DCI was asked by the police for assistance.
However, there’s another side to this story. According to the county, the video does not capture with any think.
MTN News did not interview anyone from the county. However, Alex Nixon, County Attorney, made a statement saying that Carbon County employees and officials didn’t shred ballots like the video claims.
“The Carbon County elections administrator’s shredding is shown in the circulated footage. It is the shredding received by email from Uniformed & Overseas Citizens Absentee voting Act (UOCAVA), voters.
Christina Barsky is a professor of public policy and administration at the University of Montana School of Law School.
“You won’t find things shredded that you are official documents, such things as ballots or any affidavits,” Barsky, who is also a poll watcher for Missoula County, said. All of those documents must be kept on the retention schedule.
She claims that it’s legal if the county is correct.
Emails are used to send overseas ballots. These emails are usually shredded once they have been transposed to the ballots.
Barsky stated, “If they printed it off from a printer at the elections office and then put that on the paper vote, that printout could get shredded since it’s not a voting ballot.”
The Bennets, however, are not convinced.
Bennett stated, “What we see on the video doesn’t match up to what they claim it to be,”
They claim that any documents being destroyed on Election Day is a worrisome sight at best, and they are concerned about the video evidence.
Bennett said, “I hope there’s an explanation that makes sense.” “But I am not optimistic.”
