This past Sunday, October 20, a man was caught on video tampering with an Official Mail Ballot Drop Box in Glacier County, MT. The surveillance camera footage can be found online at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/video-dem-aligned-individual-montana-ballot-box-sparks-tampering-concern-from-election-administrator
The video appears to show the individual putting both hands on the drop box and unsuccessfully trying to rip it from the wall it is mounted to.
The MT Secretary of State’s office identified the individual as Laszlo Gendler. According to FEC disbursement data, Gendler has been employed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). In a response to Fox News, a spokesperson for the DSCC said the following:
Poll observers are instructed not to touch ballot boxes. This individual was attempting to ensure a new ballot box was secured to the wall, neither the ballot box nor ballots were affected. Their actions were not in accordance with our procedures and out of an abundance of caution they will no longer be doing this work moving forward.
The Glacier County election administrator, Crystal Cole said the following in her notice to the MT Secretary of State’s Office:
Yesterday, on October 20th, at 10:25:05, Laszlo with the MT Democratic Party was on camera tampering with the Box. I did call him to ask him what his reasoning was, he stated “they” sent him to the location to see how secure the box was. The MT Democratic party did not notify the Elections office in any way to state they would be sending someone to the Ballot Box to see how secure it was, so on camera it looks like he was tampering with the box.
The communications director for the Secretary of State, Richie Melby, told Aaron Flint of Montana Talks that “our Elections Director was pleased that the individual was not able to remove the ballot box from the wall, although the activity was obviously highly suspicious and concerning.”
Amid what may be the keystone race for the United States Senate, the MT Senate race is expected to come down to the wire. Senator Jon Tester, who formerly chaired the DSCC, is down in recent polls by between four and eight points. The Senator’s campaign has not responded to YCN’s request for comment
This also comes in the same week as several ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington were ripped apart and set on fire.
