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During Montana's recent primary elections the Butte-Silver Bow County elections office certified their county results as normal. However, alert citizens noticed a discrepancy between the number of ballots reported in the official results, and what the precincts reported. In fact, most precincts had exactly 33 votes added to their total. Including at least one precinct where half that number voted at all.

In total there were 1,131 extra votes across the county and that was more than 10% of the total of 10,946 votes cast. Enough of a difference to change the outcome of the County Attorney's race and one Precinct Committeeman race. All of this happened after the election results were already certified.

After the massive error was reported to the Secretary of State and to Butte-Silver Bow County, an investigation revealed that that portable memory sticks used to transfer votes from the polling locations to the county were not properly cleared after running a required test. Human and machine error in one county exposed once again the weaknesses in Montana's election systems. If this kind of error was replicated across all 56 Montana counties that would mean 63,336 votes were erroneous, or plain fraudulent. That could change a number of results up and down ballot. For example, in 2018's U.S. Senate race, Jon Tester beat Matt Rosendale by approximately 18,000 votes. People should now wonder if that is a true statement.

On Sept 3, 2023 Butte-Silver Bow County's elections clerk appeared before a Select Committee on Elections to provide testimony concerning what happened, and answer questions. In attendance were over forty citizens from multiple locations in Montana who drove hours to reach Helena and to provide their comments and observations to the committee. All citizens present in person or online through Zoom, were in favor of a complete forensic audit including the memory sticks and Cast Vote Records (CVRs).

The election clerk was joined by other "experts" to persuade the committee that there was really nothing to see here and that everything was fine now. Comments from these "experts" routinely included phrases like:

• "nobody's perfect, we caught it in the end, no big deal" [but not before certifying the results]
• "we were tired"
• "I think"
• "I believe"
• "An error was made"

What was never stated by these "experts" was that they were "certain," or "positive" of their results and that the people should be confident of any reported results going forward into the 2024 general election, much less the already completed and certified primary election results from June. If citizen activists from across Montana had not watched the data the results would be established history and without challenge. The will of the people would have been thwarted by a human error and a memory stick. Montana cannot afford mistakes and omissions that can change election outcomes, and loading memory sticks with votes is one of the ways this happens, not only in the United States, but overseas as well.

Despite numerous and repeated requests the State of Montana and all counties refuse to provide Cast Vote Records. Officials say they do not have them and could not share them anyway out of concern that voters' personal information could be released. Cast Vote Records (CVRs) do not expose any personal information, rather they provide a critical record for citizens' to access to validate the election results.

One citizen challenged the committee to go to their county elections office and ask for the CVR pertaining to their individual vote. He then informed the committee that the elections clerks would probably tell them they cannot produce a CVR against an individual name because there is no way to identify them. Clerks would also probably state that they do not maintain a CVR despite the fact that the elections systems are designed to do so and they are required to do so by state law.

The committee ended as a waste of taxpayer time and money and those elected to office voted to ignore the clear will of the people and chose to act like there was nothing to see here. Only Senator Theresa Manzella fought for the people, and voted for the complete forensic analysis.

Montanans must demand more of their elected representatives (if they were truly elected) and remind them that they work for the people of this great state, not for anybody or anything else. At a time when confidence in election results is at an all time low across the nation, Montana should lead the way back to trustworthy election results, not keep saying "nothing to see here."

The reader should note the committee members listed immediately below, and then the proof of the change in the election results for the County Attorney primary race below that. The full agenda in pdf form is attached at the bottom.

Committee members assigned:

Below is the race that changed. Matt went from winning by 47 to losing by 18.

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