Video compiled and obtained through public records requests by citizens in Carbon County shows Elections Administrator Crystal Roascio shredding what appear to be tri-folded mail-in ballots on election night, November 8, 2022.

Attorney for the county, Alex Nixon, confirmed the documents were votes, but claimed that Roascio was simply shredding “ballot copies” received by email from military and overseas citizens through the state’s online voting portal for disabled, overseas, and military citizens.

“Carbon County officials and employees did not shred ballots as alleged in that video,” Nixon said in a statement. “The shredding undertaken by the Carbon County Elections Administrator which is depicted in the circulated video is the shredding of ballot copies received via email from Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act [UOCAVA] voters.”

The county attorney provided no explanation for why the “ballot copies” were tri-folded similar to official mail-in ballots (which are folded in order to fit into envelopes) or why these election related papers were being destroyed and not retained as required by Federal law. US Code requires that all election related records and papers be kept for a period of 22 months.

Every officer of election shall retain and preserve, for a period of twenty-two months from the date of any general, special, or primary election… all records and papers which come into his possession relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election.

52 USC §20701 – Federal Election Records

Montana’s online voting portal for UOCAVA voters has received criticism and legislators have asked for a halt to the system pending an investigation into its connection to Chinese voting software developer Eugene Yu and his company Konnech.

David Jay with KTVQ News in Billings first reported the story noting that citizens initially shared the video with Carbon County Sheriff’s Department which pushed the case to the Red Lodge Police Department. Jay reported that the matter had been referred to the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation with the Montana Department of Justice.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen confirmed in a January 25th email that the matter had been referred to the Montana DOJ for review saying, “I can assure you that this matter has reached my attention, and we are investigating.”

The video, initially obtained and reviewed by citizens, was not expected to reveal anything due to county officials requesting, prior to the election, that cameras be shut off during the day of the 2022 mid-term election.

Carbon County Administrative Officer and website administrator, Angela Newell, made the request to “privacy screen” cameras inside the tabulation area in October, a month prior to the election. The county’s offsite technical support team confirmed the request via email on October 11th.

A DIS Technologies support technician confirmed in an email to Carbon County officials that all cameras would be “privacy screened” except for the “external entrance” camera.

“I turned on the privacy screen for all of the cameras except the external entrance one,” the county’s offsite support technician replied to Newell via email.

County residents requested copies of the video anyway. Initially, Carbon County officials estimated the cost of providing the public record video at $600, but after the Carbon County Republican Central Committee made a separate request, the County offered the video to the committee for only $60. Carbon County is currently defending itself in a lawsuit for delaying and refusing to fulfill public records requests made by Montana citizens and news gathering operations.

In the election night video, the elections administrator and County Commissioner Bill Bullock can be seen walking in and out of the tabulation area holding stacks of papers and stopping to have conversations. At around 8:45 PM in the video, Roascio can be seen standing over a large shredder outside the tabulation room with tri-folded documents that appear to be mail-in ballots, feeding them into the shredder. Roascio fed 20 batches of the tri-folded documents into the shredder according to the compiled video.

Clips from the compiled video also reveal a lack of understanding and possible incompetence on the part of election administrator Roascio when it comes to selecting a balanced group of election judges for election night. Roascio claimed in a clip that she could not pick a balanced group of partisan election judges to monitor the elections, as required by Montana law, because she could not ask judges their partisan affiliation.

“I do not know affiliations with judges,” Roascio stated. “We are a non-partisan state so I can’t. I don’t know anybody’s affiliation. So I have no idea what their affiliation is. We can’t ask.” Carbon County Clerk and Recorder Macque Bohleen standing nearby echoed Roascio’s false claim in the clip.

While the State of Montana allows voters to register without choosing a party affiliation, Montana code does allow election administrators to ask election judges their partisan leaning.

Montana Code 13-4-102(3) states that election administrators can determine election judges partisan leanings and that they shall appoint judges so that all eligible political parties are represented on election night.

Indeed, another clip in the video shows former Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Rena Moore onboarding election judges asking them to fill out a brief survey to identify each judge’s political affiliation.

“We also need you to fill out an election judge survey and identify your political background because we need to be able to try to balance the haul between Democrats, Republicans and independents,” Moore said.

Watch the full video compiled by citizens below: