Elections Administrator Sends Letter to Secretary of State

After allegations of voter fraud in the November 2020 election, Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman has sent a letter to Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen asking for a meeting to help restore the public’s confidence in local elections.

Seaman referenced the article in Real Clear Investigations written by John Lott of the Crime Research Center in Missoula.

“There have been no charges filed,” said Seaman. There has been an opinion article written by Mr. Lott. That is his opinion as to what he feels may have happened with the election. There have been no charges filed because in order to file charges, we must have evidence and there is no evidence behind those claims. The big concern is that there have been recent opinion articles from Mr. Lott from the records request from Representative (Bradley) Tschida that damaged the integrity of the election.”

Seaman said he reached out to Secretary of State Jacobsen for guidance on how to help restore voter confidence.

“We reached out to the Secretary of State today and asked how can we work together to help voters feel confident in the policies that we're following that you prescribe,” he asked. “Because there was that records request. The process was lacking from that records request, and that is leading to some misinformation that may be confusing voters.”

Seaman also released a fact sheet regarding the recent election.

“We put out the letter to the Secretary of State today, as well as direct factual evidence for each of the claims that Mr. Lott had lobbied,” he said. “We're working hard to make sure that voters know and understand that our process follows the law and is open to the public. “We're welcome to work with everybody to make sure that they can feel confident in these processes that are followed not just here in Missoula County, but across the whole state and the processes that the state used to certify this election, too.”

All that being said, the business of elections goes on, with school election ballots heading out soon.

“School District One, which is the main school district, is not running an election,” he said. “But it does cover areas like Alberton and Frenchtown Fire, the Lolo Community Council, as well as some of our other schools like Bonner, Clinton, and Seeley Lake, so those ballots will be going out to voters and you can go to Missoula votes.com. Click on the current election page and confirm that you'll be in that. You'll receive your ballots just after the 14^th, and they're due back by the fourth of May at 8:00 p.m.”