Welch claims ballot-counting errors tainted election

Martin City Republican Sandy Welch claims that software and other errors with ballot machines could have tipped the vote in favor of her opponent in the race for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Welch lost the race to Democratic incumbent Denise Juneau by 2,231 votes out of 468,563 votes cast. Welch is seeking a recount of the ballots, citing several errors.

On Dec. 7, Flathead County District Court Judge Stewart Stadler ruled in favor of Welch’s recount request and ordered a statewide recount.

Attorneys for the state said on Monday, Dec. 10, they will not appeal Stadler’s ruling even though they had argued Welch had not presented adequate evidence to justify a recount.

Welch specifically points to problems in the use of Model 650 ballot-counting machines. In Lewis and Clark County, the Model 650 machines also had a software error, which was validated by the software provider, Welch claimed Dec. 6.

In that case, a coding error gave Democrat Ron Szabo 25 votes and Republican incumbent Rick Ripley of Wolf Creek zero votes in one precinct in the race for Montana Senate District 9. Ripley won the election in a landslide.

But that error was caught in a later canvass of the votes, Lewis and Clark County election supervisor Marilyn Bracken said. Bracken said the company that makes the ballot machines checked all the other races and said they were accurate.

Welch, however, has other concerns, particularly with ballots that jammed or were unacceptably marked.

“State law requires that unacceptable ballots be copied by hand and run through the machine,” Welch claimed in a press release. “This inconsistency with law indicates that many ballots were potentially counted multiple times as officials re-ran unacceptable ballots.”

Bracken, however, said her office has been using the Model 650 machine for several years without a problem.

A hand recount will take time and plenty of manpower and is expensive. Welch said the total cost, including attorney fees and fees to cover ballot inspectors, will likely top $200,000. The Republican Party is assisting with the cost of holding a recount.