Despite open questions regarding 4,592 ballots from Missoula County’s 2020 General Election missing chain of custody documentation, the Missoula City Council recently voted to authorize another mail-in ballot election for the primary this September. Missoulians will be electing a new Mayor and two ward seats next year.

One city councilwoman, Ward 6 Sandra Vasecka, gave an impassioned plea to her fellow councilors to not authorize a mail-in ballot election in September, referencing the ballot discrepancy saying, “These revelations have not had any response nor any answer as to why they happened.” Vasecka continued, “It would be foolish and, frankly, untruthful to say that there is no election security issues. It would be irresponsible and naive to be in favor of all mail-in voting for this election. I cannot support this. I will be voting no and I urge my colleagues to do the same.”

After Vasecka’s speech, other members of the city council quickly came to Missoula County Elections Department’s defense. Ward 5’s Stacie Anderson jumped in after Vasecka spoke making claims that could not be verified, “The voting fraud claims you’ve cited have been investigated numerous times and were found to not be credible. There has been numerous election claims brought by and fully investigated by members of the legislature and have been investigated [sic] and by the Missoula County Elections and have found to be that our elections were completely aboveboard following the laws as put out.”

The legislature has not completed any investigation into the discrepancies found in the Missoula County 2020 General Election.

Anderson is seeking a second term as Ward 5 councilor. Bob Campbell, a local law enforcement officer and former US Army Sergeant, is running to unseat her.

We reached out to councilwoman Anderson to learn more about her claims of an investigation by the State legislature regarding the ballot discrepancy in Missoula County. We posted our email to her dated July 3rd in a Drop this weekend. In our email we asked her to name the investigation that the Montana Legislature completed, to name the members of the legislature that conducted the investigation, and to provide details about what body told her that Missoula County elections were found to be “completely aboveboard.”

So far we have not received a response regarding Anderson’s unfounded claims. Other members of the city council who defended the elections in the face of the ballot discrepancy have not answered our emails either. City leaders appear to be stonewalling efforts to ensure integrity in Missoula County elections. Why? We will update readers when and if council members respond.