Montana Democrat operative fired after potential 'tampering' of ballot box

A Democrat operative in Montana has been fired from his organization after he repeatedly touched a ballot box in Glacier County, which is a breach of protocol.

Laszlo Gendler lost his position with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) after video footage showed that he approached a ballot box on Sunday, shaking it briefly, then taking a photo of it with his cell phone camera.

While the DSCC maintains that Gendler did not tamper with the votes in the ballot box in any way, it admitted that Gendler should not have touched the box.

Gendler said he was sent to make sure the box was secure.

“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,” DSCC spokesman David Bergstein said. “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.”

Glacier County election administrator Crystal Cole sent the video of Gendler to the secretary of state, who in turn said it was referred to law enforcement.