Election integrity seems to be on everyone’s lips this election cycle, not least because the shenanigans in places like Atlanta and Philadelphia are still being debated. But as much as some parties would like us to believe that any election (that a Democrat wins) is the safest election imaginable, sometimes evidence emerges that smacks them in the face.
In Montana, Democratic Senator Jon Tester is fighting for his political life against Republican challenger Tim Sheehy – and he is doing so apparently lost. On Wednesday, we learned that a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) employee, one Laszlo Gendler, was fired for what appeared to be an attempt Manipulation of a ballot box.
The Senate Democrats’ main campaign committee has fired an employee who was accused of “tampering” with a ballot box in Montana. a state the party absolutely must win to retain the majority in the upper house.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) banned Laszlo Gendler after he was recorded walking up to a ballot box in Glacier County on Sunday, shaking it briefly and then leaving the scene an alarming video from Fox News.
In the video, a newborn man, later identified by Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s office as Gendler, approaches the box and tries to move it slightly with both hands before giving up and pulling out his cell phone. He then appears to take a photo or video of the location.
Some would be quick to note here that Gendler did not break into the ballot box or even attempt to break into it, unless trying to “move it slightly with both hands” sounds like trying to break into the ballot box to break in. To be fair, this seems a bit exaggerated. But he tampered with it anyway – and we wonder what reason Gendler would have for photographing the box unless she were to intervene with it at a later date, perhaps under the cover of darkness.
Luckily, he was caught and fired, and that’s thanks to the DSCC.
“Election observers are instructed not to touch ballot boxes. This person was trying to ensure a new ballot box was attached to the wall. Neither the ballot box nor the ballots were affected,” DSCC spokesman David Bergstein said in a statement to Fox. “Their actions did not comply with our procedures and, out of an abundance of caution, they will not undertake this work in the future.”
The DSCC paid Gendler $42,909.20 in salary and travel expenses between Sept. 15, 2023 and Aug. 30, 2024, Federal Election Commission filings show.
It is currently unclear whether Gendler will face legal consequences.
See related: With the Senate at stake, all is over except the mourning of Jon Tester in Montana
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Of course there is a catch; The dismissal of Gendler by the DSCC does not preclude him from making another attempt, perhaps a more solemn one. The Montana Senate race is widely viewed as crucial to control of the Senate in the next cycle, and while the race doesn’t appear to be quite as close, Tim Sheehy is currently seven points ahead of incumbent Jon Tester in the RealClearPolitics average the possibility of someone trying something like that. Additionally, this ballot box is in Montana’s House District 1, where incumbent Republican Ryan Zinke is facing a challenge from Democrat Monica Tranel in a race labeled as “vulnerable Republican.”
In other words, it’s an area that could be seen as vulnerable to a change of a few hundred votes – the contents of a ballot box, for example.
