How incredibly irresponsible can an elected official be? Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch recently distributed an editorial saying, “Crying wolf about the security of Montana’s elections is an intentional and deliberate attempt to decrease voter turnout by gaining support for laws that will restrict your right to vote.”
The official Montana Secretary of State website lists McCulloch’s number one priority: “interpreting state election laws and overseeing elections.” Her job is to identify weaknesses in our voting system and take measures to prevent election fraud. She should be proudly and aggressively investigating complaints, auditing processes, and training personnel to protect the integrity of our votes.
Instead, she denies any responsibility. “The results are overwhelmingly clear. Voter fraud – votes knowingly cast by ineligible individuals – does not exist in Montana,” McCulloch wrote.
I think back to my first college job, busting my butt in Nelson’s tire shop in Great Falls on a cold November day, looking out at the long line of muddy, sloppy cars waiting for snow tire installation. I sure wish I could have said “It is overwhelmingly clear! There is no snow in Montana, so the need for snow tires does not exist!”
I would have been fired, and so should McCulloch. There IS snow in Montana, and there IS election fraud.
Last weekend a group of Tea Party leaders from around the state met in Helena for a planning session, and one of the hot topics was the escalating incidence of election fraud. One described how, in his small precinct, over 200 absentee ballots were mailed to out of state addresses! Since the returned ballots were hidden from poll watchers by officials, no one knows how many were accepted as valid by the county election officials.
Another related how a poll watcher friend saw and pointed out to the official that twelve consecutive ballots were signed by the same person with the same pen. The official blushed, and said “I’ll take care of this,” and removed the ballots to a back room, where nobody could see what ultimately happened to them.
A study of the 2008 Montana election results points out serious flaws in the Missoula County vote tabulator machine processes and the Montana Votes database.
While the absentee ballot is a great convenience, it is also an opportunity for easy election fraud. And McColloch’s equating the requirement for photo ID at the polls with “voter repression” is just asinine and disingenuous. There can be no other reason for denying this reasonable test of voter integrity than the accommodation of fraud.
This is not a partisan issue. Voters of all parties and persuasions should demand election integrity from their secretary of state. Linda McCulloch is not interested in fulfilling that number-one priority. If she doesn’t believe there is election fraud in Montana, she is fooling herself – and the voters.
Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side
Enjoy one of the all-time great live concert bands – Styx
You’re fooling yourself if you don’t believe it
You’re kidding yourself if you don’t believe it
Rockin' On The Right Side 
Indeed, our Montana election process is steeped in fraud. As I recall, there were thousands of mail-in ballots mailed to the wrong people. Here’s some posts I made about this issue http://twg2a.wordpress.com/?s=montana+voter+fraud
McCullough won’t be on the throne much longer, but her replacement needs to get this under control. (I met McCullough at an event a little over a year ago and couldn’t believe how very rude she was. She was pretty ticked off that I didn’t recognize her authority and acted as if I ought to curtsey in her presence and kiss her ring.)
She and hew fellow DIMwits here in Montana fought hard for mail-in voting. Montana is a red state, and they’re working hard to change that…… on paper anyway.
Reblogged this on THE WAKING GIANT and commented:
No Voter Fraud in Montana? Yeah, says Linda McCullough, Montana’s DIMwit Secty of State. You can also read more about this here: http://twg2a.wordpress.com/?s=montana+voter+fraud
Tom –
Any chance you and I can meet when I’m in Lewistown next month? This whole voter fraud issue is being demagogued horribly. You need to know the facts.
The examples you cited are indicative of how misleading this “election fraud campaign” is. For example – the precinct with 200 out of state ballots – think for a minute: The average number of voters per precinct varies widely – some of them have over 2000 registered voters. Now I know your source said this was a small precinct, but I’m not buying that without knowing exactly which precinct he’s talking about. But lets say it was a precinct of 500 – 700 registered voters. And 200 absentee ballots were sent out of state. Big deal. The purpose of absentee ballots is so that people who are not going to be at home (Montana) on election day can vote. Right now an average of 40% + of all registered voters request an absentee ballot. Before getting anyone’s knickers in a knot, let’s find out the truth here. The neat thing is that all you need to know is what precinct is in question and then you can ask the County Elections Administrator and find out exactly who is registered in the county and who received an absentee ballot. It’s not a secret!
In fact there has been no – nada – not one – none – valid case of voter fraud in the state of Montana for many years. Don’t get me started on Patty Lovass – but rest assured that every one of her allegations was thoroughly investigated!!!!.
We need to talk…
Sure, we’d like to meet with you.
The examples I cited were from poll watchers, (other than Patty Lovass, I don’t know her), and I trust their reports. There were many more anecdotes where those came from.
Re: the 200+ out of state absentee ballots – that report was from Wheatland County, and I was told they were mostly sent to adult children of local residents. These people used to live there, but have long since moved away. They are reportedly still voting as Wheatland County residents under their parents addresses, as absentees, even though they live in Florida, Texas, etc. The same poll watcher saw scores of voters casting ballots at the poll who were no longer residents – they were publicly known to reside in Billings, Great Falls, or elsewhere – and still accepted as legit voters in Harlowton. It’s a small town where everybody knows everybody, and it’s pretty obvious to any local observer what’s going on.
Auntie Lib, the problem may not be as egregious as we make it (keep in mind, we are trying to get attention to the problem) but it certainly does exist and should not be summarily dismissed by the person who is charged with finding it. If you don’t look for a problem, guess what, you may not find one!
There have been elections stolen across the country, and I know of at least one for sure here. We can’t ignore and deny and put our heads in the sand, this is too important to the integrity of our state and nation.
I just want to thank you for this info Tom, this family will not be voting LM!
Don’t forget, Linda got her job as part of the Soros funded SOS (Secretary of State) Project in which they are trying to control the elections. I figure that if you don’t have a photo ID, (and you don’t live in the Yaak, where no one knows who is there), you have to have your picture taken at the polling place. Some say that this will discourage voters, but I think it will just discourage those who aren’t supposed to be voting anyway.
You mean admitted, publicized, or prosecuted cases of voter fraud are rare. That doesn’t mean fraud isn’t happening.