As Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Sandy Welch prepares for her Kalispell District Court hearing tomorrow, a letter from the Lewis and Clark County Elections Supervisor confirms a software error in their ballot counting machines. Welch’s application emphasized six specific counts where adequate probable cause is presented to the court on ballot counting errors that may have falsely affected the superintendent race. Two of the six counts noted specific errors in the use of model 650 ballot counting machines.
In Lewis and Clark County, the model 650 machines experienced a software error, which was validated by the software provider. Election Supervisor Marilyn Bracken confirmed this error with the software company in Nebraska.
According to Welch’s Campaign Manager this inconsistency indicates that many ballots were potentially counted multiple times as officials re-ran unacceptable ballots. Welch says the integrity of our voting system is in question.