- Oct 17, 2011
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Despite repeated allegations by Republican lawmakers, a count of ballot envelopes by Missoula’s Republican Party turned up no evidence of voting irregularities in 2020.
Missoula’s 2020 election became the focus of considerable debate last spring after Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, spearheaded a citizen effort to hand-count affirmation envelopes submitted by voters with their mail-in ballots. That count, made possible by a public records request filed by Tschida, took 20 volunteers five hours to complete and resulted in the group reporting a 4,592-vote discrepancy between the number of envelopes and the number of votes cast countywide. Tschida’s subsequent allegations of voting irregularitiesprompted a rebuke from the Missoula County Commission, which questioned the accuracy of the group’s count and its process and dismissed Tschida’s claims as “baseless.”
This time [in a new recount effort to establish confidence in the system] staff from the elections office did the counting while party volunteers observed and kept their own tally. Kopetski and Seaman said that after each bundle of envelopes was counted, Seaman’s staff would switch seats and count the bundles again for verification.
“That’s the biggest difference [from the previous count], is that cross-confirmation on the count helps ensure accuracy,” Seaman said.
The latest count, conducted by elections office staff and observed by GOP volunteers, came up with a total of 71,853 envelopes — 71 envelopes shy of the 71,924 listed as received by the county in November 2020. Kopetski characterized the discrepancy as “statistically insignificant.” ... and is attributable to what [Seaman] called “the human element.”
Missoula’s 2020 election became the focus of considerable debate last spring after Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, spearheaded a citizen effort to hand-count affirmation envelopes submitted by voters with their mail-in ballots. That count, made possible by a public records request filed by Tschida, took 20 volunteers five hours to complete and resulted in the group reporting a 4,592-vote discrepancy between the number of envelopes and the number of votes cast countywide. Tschida’s subsequent allegations of voting irregularitiesprompted a rebuke from the Missoula County Commission, which questioned the accuracy of the group’s count and its process and dismissed Tschida’s claims as “baseless.”
This time [in a new recount effort to establish confidence in the system] staff from the elections office did the counting while party volunteers observed and kept their own tally. Kopetski and Seaman said that after each bundle of envelopes was counted, Seaman’s staff would switch seats and count the bundles again for verification.
“That’s the biggest difference [from the previous count], is that cross-confirmation on the count helps ensure accuracy,” Seaman said.
The latest count, conducted by elections office staff and observed by GOP volunteers, came up with a total of 71,853 envelopes — 71 envelopes shy of the 71,924 listed as received by the county in November 2020. Kopetski characterized the discrepancy as “statistically insignificant.” ... and is attributable to what [Seaman] called “the human element.”
