Montana election officials report threats ahead of primary

Addressing the state Legislature’s oversight committee for election processes, Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan said Wednesday he’s been working with other organizations to encourage local election administrators and law enforcement to develop plans “for the safety of their staff, polling locations and equipment.”

“Election misinformation, disinformation, the stuff that’s happening across the state, is harming and putting at risk our election officials, our election judges, our election volunteers and poll-watchers in the coming elections,” he said, adding, “someone needs to stand up and say Montanans need to be proud and feel good about the election practices we have in place and can feel confident about their vote.”

Mangan cited potential threats directed at election officials in Carbon and Cascade counties, and asked the State Administration and Veterans Affairs Interim Committee to consider legislation that would enhance protections for election officials and judges against safety threats.

Mangan also asked that lawmakers play a bigger role in pushing back on election misinformation.

“I haven’t had to deal with something like this in the previous five years. This is all new because of the constant disinformation and it’s coming from people who should know better,” Mangan said. “Respectfully, it’s coming from some of your colleagues.”

Elsewhere in the state, election officials counties have previously said they’ve received threatening messages from local activists, while others have described potential threats to election machines and tense confrontations with activists spreading election fraud theories.

Mangan also expressed disappointment in the state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, for staying largely silent on election-fraud misinformation and safety threats.

“The Secretary of State’s office should be telling people that they need to feel confident in our election processes, every day,” he said. “Instead we have groups going around, just in the last three days, telling people their votes won’t be counted, that there are modems in the machines, that their votes are going to Spain and then coming back … It has to stop.”

Jacobsen has maintained that Montana’s elections are secure, and that the machines don’t connect to the internet. But she’s stayed largely silent while Republican secretaries of state elsewhere in the country have in some cases taken an active role in pushing back against conspiracy theories.

Asked to comment on Jacobsen’s reluctance to address election conspiracy theories, spokesperson Richie Melby issued the following statement Wednesday:

“The Secretary and Office work with a servant’s heart towards safe, secure, and accessible elections every day. State and local election officials are a key component of those elections and the Secretary has consistently stated one of the greatest strengths of Montana’s elections are our election officials. State and local election officials are the trusted source of election information in Montana. Should any election official be threatened while performing the important duties of their job, they should contact local law enforcement.”

Carbon county’s election administrator, Crystal Roascio, wrote in an email Wednesday that she has been in contact with local law enforcement following allegations by right-wing activists that the machines the county uses to process ballots are compromised.

“I have election judges terrified for their safety and have even had some resign from being a judge over this,” Roascio wrote in the email to Mangan. “I have been in contact with our sheriff about deputies/reserves in all polling locations. He agrees we do need this, but we are not sure if we have enough to do that.”

Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan said Wednesday that his office had not received an official complaint regarding threats to election workers, but confirmed additional deputies would be staffed for the election due to security concerns brought by the election administrator.

Mark Cook, a self-described cyber security expert who has sought to cast doubt on the state’s election technology, gave a presentation in Red Lodge Monday as part of a tour throughout the state this week. Roascio wrote that she attended the presentation, and was approached by local activists demanding a hand-count of ballots.

Roascio has been embroiled in a recent controversy over allegations that her ballot tabulators were potentially tampered with. In an interview last week, she said the issue is based on a misunderstanding of security protocols for the ballot-processing machines.

All counties that use tabulators in Montana are required to conduct a “public test” within 30 days of each election they use the machines for. The public tests involve scanning batches of test ballots through the tabulators, checking for different combinations of votes and potential errors, and comparing those results to the physical test ballots that were used.

During Carbon County’s May 12 public test, an observer noticed the warranty labels on the machine had been damaged, Roascio said. She emphasized they were not the security seals, which she said remain intact. Security seals must be broken in order to access the internal workings of the machines, and are in place to guard against potential tampering.

“After speaking with the Secretary of State’s office, ES&S and the certified tech for ES&S and it was found in February 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, they had to come in and upgraded the scanner boards inside our DS200s,” Roascio said. Election Systems & Software is the vendor that manufactures and services all tabulators used in Montana, including the DS200 model.

She noted that the company offered to replace the machines, but wouldn’t have been able to get them prepared and certified in time for the June 7 primary election.

Since that meeting, Roascio said she’s fielded numerous inquiries about the issue, especially after a right-wing blog published a post repeatedly referring to the labels as “seals” and suggesting the machines’ security had been breached.

Back in December, Jacobsen was asked in an interview whether she believes there is any concrete evidence to support allegations of coordinated voter fraud in Montana. She repeatedly declined to answer.

“I am going to support any effort that improves the integrity of the elections, period,” Jacobsen responded at the time, adding that she would work with the Legislature to do so.