In case you haven’t noticed, free and fair elections are under attack. Most recently the election denier crowd here in Cascade County is bringing another roadshow charlatan here to Great Falls. This guy’s name is Douglas Frank, a former high school math and science teacher from Ohio. And it appears he is a target of an FBI probe into voter fraud in numerous states.
In April, he appeared in six public meetings in Wyoming and held private meetings with legislators and the Wyoming Secretary of State. His actions prompted the Association of Clerk and Recorders to issue a letter to the Secretary of State, Chuck Gray, which said, “Throughout those meetings, we have concluded that Dr. Frank conveys claims of impropriety but provides no proof to support his allegations.” Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the clerks’ association, also wrote to Gray on March 29. “One would think that Dr. Frank would be eager to prove this capability but rather than proof, Dr. Frank offers an unverifiable story.”
Last spring the election deniers brought other so-called “experts” to town for another public meeting. In addition to Republican State Senator Theresa Manzella, the self appointed Queen of election deniers in Montana, they brought in a shady character named Mark Cook. Among other things, Cook was implicated in litigation and investigations in Colorado over illegal copying of voting records. (WTF406.com has written several articles, some examples here and here, on the election deniers here in Great Falls.)
It turns out that Douglas Frank is also a target in an FBI probe of voting fraud in Colorado arising from some of the same incidents Mark Cook had allegedly been involved in. In September, his cell phone was confiscated by the FBI. Mike Lindell’s (The My Pillow Guy and major supporter of election fraud conspiracy theories) phone was also taken in part of the same investigation. Documents that Lindell showed on his on-line program said investigators were seeking evidence of crimes committed by Lindell and several associates, including Frank. Lindell said that he had hired Frank for several projects but was not aware of all of his activities and denied any involvement in the incidents in Colorado.
As Donald Trump faces state and federal criminal indictment for his efforts to steal the 2020 election, here in Great Falls election conspiracists continue promoting their wacky theories and generally fouling up the Clerk and Recorder’s office. Since taking office in January, our new Clerk and Recorder, Sandra Merchant, has managed to screw up virtually everything she touches. The school election was completely fouled up, a court ordered a special monitor to oversee the library levy election to guarantee it was properly administered, there are currently three lawsuits filed against the county challenging Merchant’s administration of local elections.
Merchant is not just incompetent. She is also corrupt. Most recently Merchant and members of her staff went to a meeting held at the high-end Chico Hot Springs Resort at an estimated cost of more than $3,000 to the taxpayers. Virtually, every new hire in the Clerk and Recorder’s office has been filled by her cronies, including the wife and daughter of far-right Republican Public Service Commissioner, Randy Pinocci. Makes one wonder where the County Attorney and County Human Resources office is since political patronage hiring is clearly illegal under state law.
So, now Frank is bringing his roadshow to Great Falls. He will be appearing on August 29 at MSU College of Technology. It makes one wonder what kinds of shenanigans Sandra Merchant and her cronies are up to now that they control the local Clerk and Recorder’s office.
–KT
For more on Frank and the investigation in Colorado, check out these articles:
After hearing Sandra Merchant’s lame presentation last Friday, you probably thought things could not possibly get worse in the County Elections Office. Sorry to burst your bubble, but today things did get worse.
If you visited or called the Elections Office today, Jan Wenaas may have greeted you with a friendly smile and twinkle in her eye. She’s happy to have infiltrated the Elections Office camp, working behind the scenes as a self-proclaimed volunteer for Sandra Merchant. So, why is that a problem?
First, Wenaas is the face of Cascade County’s far-right “Election Integrity” committee, those pesky election deniers who believe the 2020 election was stolen, despite nearly 60 lawsuits whose outcomes proved otherwise. Yes, Wenaas believes The Big Lie; the same lie that MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, has been spouting and several Montana legislators have bought into – Steve and Lola Galloway, and Steve Gist to name a few.
In fact, Wenaas was instrumental arranging the bogus dog-and-pony show last year bringing State Senator Theresa Manzella of Ravalli County and her entourage of election deniers to Great Falls, including some dude from Colorado who claims he witnessed first-hand election malfeasance in his state. Their presentation contended vote count machines results are intercepted by Venezuelans, and the election outcomes changed at the blink of an eye. Wait, what??
Finally, Wenaas signed onto a petition sent to then County Commissioners Briggs, Larson and Ryan calling for them to immediately do among other things, the following:
Ban mail-in ballots except for overseas military, disabled or other qualified persons
Ballot turn in on election day only, with one day counting
Clean voter roles by requiring all qualified county residents to re-register
OMG, why is a woman who clearly does not believe in the state’s voting process sitting in front of a county computer at a desk in the Elections Office? So what that she’s a volunteer. She has access to the county phones. Does she also have access to voter registrations? Is she going to be handling ballots – those horrible mail ballots she believes the county should discontinue? Why is a volunteer working in the sacred space of the Elections Office, anyway?
Shocked yet? If so, tell your county commissioners:
Don’t waste your time contacting Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, newly dubbed by many county citizens as Sandra Merchant’s handler. Probably not worth your time to question the Elections Office self-proclaimed protector. And what’s up with that?
Maybe let Eric Bryson, Executive Director of the Montana Association of Counties, know you are concerned at: ebryson@mtcounties.org Next thing you know, Merchant will be telling us the vote counting machines don’t work, and everything needs to be hand counted. Stranger things have happened, or shall we say, are happening.
This flyer was distributed when Wenaas brought Manzella and the election denier crowd to Great Falls. Wenaas was one of the signers on this utterly insane petition circulated last year.
“We do not allow children to make many kinds of unhealthy decisions, such as smoking, drinking, child pornography, sex with adults, and illegal drug use.”
That’s how Senator John Fuller opened his promotion of his bill at the hearing for SB99 on Friday: by equating gender transition with child porn and statutory rape. Got to protect the kids from pronouns and porn!
It went downhill from there.
My friend and I had driven through a snowstorm that day from Belgrade to Helena to join the many doctors, therapists, trans and Two Spirit folks, and parents of trans kids to voice our opposition to the bill. It’s a bill that would make it illegal for us to seek gender affirming care for our kids. A bill that would insert the state between our families and our providers, designate evidence-based practice as “child abuse,.” It would even make it illegal for our kids’ teachers to use their names and pronouns if such things didn’t match their genitals.
We sat and listened to the line-up of proponents. These included many religious right-wing organizations, such as the Montana Family Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, Restore Liberty, Moms for Liberty, and the Family Research Council. There were several out-of-state professional “detransitioners” who travel around and warn about the regrets of transitioning. There were chiropractors, a physical therapist, someone from New York who claimed to have a PhD in psychiatry, and a lot of angry, disgruntled parents and grandparents, some from Montana, some from other states.
They didn’t even pretend that parental rights applied to this topic. They all flat-out stated that parents of trans kids don’t have the same rights as everyone else. That they were singling out gender-affirming care as the One Terrible Thing that medical consensus, science, and best practices get utterly wrong. This is the hill their fanatical parental rights movement dies on. Fuller even stated, as did others, that the state needs to protect kids from “their parents’ influence.” Because surely parents like me are chomping at the bit to force our boys to be girls and force our girls to cut their hair and change their names. (Maybe they should turn the spotlight on their churches before going after us if they’re worried about “parental influence.”) I’ve never seen these rabid parental rights zombies state that the government needs to protect kids against their own parents before, and I grew up in the fundamentalist homeschooling world that invented anti-government parental rights fanaticism.
As expected, proponents started pulling “stats” out of their asses and claiming heart-rending stories of pain, regret, and “body mutilation”. One professional detransitioner claimed he’s gotten more than 10,000 emails from people who want to detransition. Another dude from a Christian organization in Billings stated that the instance of girls transitioning to boys has “increased 5000% percent,”, while people from the Heritage Foundation and the other hate groups made claims that 82% of people who transition regret it. At one point my friend leaned over and incredulously whispered, “They’re just making shit up!”
I should have made a bingo card, because they hit all the same talking points: transitioning is a lucrative business, look at Sweden, kids can’t make their own decisions, they’ll never be able to have sex or make babies (lots of obsession with how kids will have sex), trans people existing is an assault on the traditional family, people can’t make decisions until they’re 25, “I wanted to be a boy, too,when I was a kid,” “My son identified as an airplane,” and “out of state interests are trying to destroy Montana families.” (Even though the majority of proponents were out-of-state activists.)
It was one and a half hours of a daunting onslaught of bigotry, ignorance, lies, propaganda, and outright hatred. One senator at the end even equated suicide with gender transitioning, stating sarcastically that he should seek “suicide-affirming care” for his son who was determined to kill himself. It was an astonishing display of vitriolic word vomit.
When opponents got up to speak, the entire energy of the room shifted. We had twice as many people and 99% were actual Montanans. We had representatives from every hospital and medical association in the state, along with doctors, nurses, therapists, endocrinologists, independent clinics, domestic violence organizations, state representatives, and so many more.
But all my love and respect goes to the trans kids and adults who stood up to tell their stories. The youngest child to speak was 13. They fearlessly told their stories of growing up trans in Montana and begged the heartless committee to not take that away from them. It broke my heart and inspired me. I stood up and asked why they think I should get rights over two of my kids but not the other two. Parents told life-changing stories about their children to senators who didn’t care, who will probably vote this bill through anyway. I actually got a photo of Senator Theresa Manzella scrolling on her phone, and Senator Barry Usher falling asleep while one parent talked about how gender-affirming care saved his child. They are ghouls with a black hole where their hearts should be.
But Montana showed up that day. From professionals to parents to friends to children, Montana showed up to passionately voice their opposition to this cruel bill that would strip life and liberty from the most vulnerable among us. Unlike the proponents who were mostly out-of-state activists loudly claiming out-of-state activists were trying to turn our kids trans, opponents of the bill were everyday Montanans like you and me, standing up for the children of Montana. And it was beautiful. We’ve got each other’s backs, Montana. “We will fight like hell,” as Rep. Zooey Zephyr stated that day. Keep showing up, keep speaking up, and never back down.
“You may legislate with hate, but we will protect each other with love” ~Keegan Medrano, MT ACLU
In a press release straight out of the Capitol City, the three ring circus known as the Montana Freedom Caucus announced that Great Falls representative, Steven Galloway, has joined their fourteen member cast of clowns. In the press release issued by the circus, Clown Queen Theresa Manzella, Republican Senator from the Bitterroot Valley, regurgitated the punchlines of many on the far right, “We stand for states’ rights and work to rein in federal overreach. Montana citizens have made it clear that this is their desire.” So much for originality.
Our readers may remember when Manzella brought her roadshow to Great Falls at the invitation of the local Pachyderm Club. Her act that time around was joining the jokers on the far right poking fun at local elections by trying to fool people into thinking that elections in Montana are corrupt. (Check out our story https://wtf406.com/2022/09/the-big-lie-in-cascade-county/ )
The Montana Freedom Caucus is a wholly owned subsidiary of the national circus franchise, the Congressional Freedom Caucus in Washington DC. Montana Representative Matt Rosendale is an active clown in the national group, having developed a character who dresses like a Montana cowboy, but speaks with a thick Maryland accent. Most recently the national group dominated the media by catching Representative Kevin McCarthy, demanding he obey them and repeatedly hitting him with pies in the face until he agreed to their demands. As part of their routine, Rosendale took to the House floor and delivered an unintelligible speech criticizing . . .well it was hard to tell what he was criticizing. The media covered his speech with the headline, “Rosendale rages against a non-problem in viral speech, say political analysts” (https://billingsgazette.com/news/rosendale-rages-against-a-non-problem-in-viral-speech-say-political-analysts/article_4bec7336-8e32-11ed-8b60-67f4e4525fdc.html )
Rosendale is clearly trying to get his pies in order to throw them in the face of Senator Jon Tester in the 2024 election. But first he’ll have to beat fellow clown Ryan Zinke who has his own routine imitating a Montana cowboy. In the Montana circus press release, Rosendale said, “I’m proud to work with veteran and newly-elected lawmakers to ensure every Montanan has a voice in our representative government.” What he didn’t say, but we all know it’s what he means is, “These are the clowns that are going to help me beat Zinke”
It is not clear what role Steve Galloway will play in this troop of clowns. It is clear he is not likely to emerge as a leader. His wife Lola, who is also in the legislature, is far more likely to end up in a leadership role. She has already developed a comic character with flashy hats pushing a baby carriage with a doll in it.
Time will tell. The group plans to have a show in Helena in January. Grab your popcorn and get a seat. It’s bound to be entertaining!
Across the country Trump supporters falsely say the last election was stolen. They demand “reform”
which really means they are demanding changes that disenfranchise millions of voters and threaten to
make our election system less secure and easier to manipulate so they can “win” future elections. Many
of these people are true believers but the farther up the far-right food chain the promoters of election
fraud myths understand that the best way to assure that they remain in power is to undermine the
public’s faith in free and fair elections.
Having lost their efforts to destabilize our elections at the national level after the court system
consistently rejected their allegations of fraud, they have turned to state and local organizing. In state
after state, legislators have introduced bills to limit and complicate elections. All funded and supported
by right-wing organizations and activists (Like Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy).
The voter fraud road show has also shown up in Cascade County and helped create a cadre of activists
who have busily been wasting local government’s time and resources. Two weeks before the primary
election, on May 24th Teressa Manzella brought featured speaker, Mark Cook, a shadowy figure from
Colorado who purports to be a computer expert specializing in “root cause analysis, for a community
meeting held Heritage Hall at MSU Great Falls as part of a state-wide tour promoting the conspiracy
theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Here in Cascade County, there is a very active group of election deniers. As in Nevada and Colorado
voting fraud activists are targeting the county commission. Election deniers across the country are
getting almost no help from local clerk and recorders regardless of political beliefs or party affiliation.
The reason is simple. Clerk and Recorders are intimately involved in our election process, and they
know that the allegations of fraud are a baseless waste of time.
Here in Cascade County, Lewis Zanto, a local realtor who works for Dustin Young and Company, was
given 1 hour on the County Commission agenda to discuss “election integrity” on April 25th. About 35
people attended the meeting including local far-right legislators Lola and Steven Galloway, County
Commission candidate and conspiracy promoter Rae Grulkowski, and various local republican activists.
County Commissioner Joe Briggs pointed out the irony of republican activists complaining about the
2020 election since Republicans won all Cascade County offices. “As I look around the room, I see the
people that I can identify by party roles. Republicans. I’ll just put it that way,” Briggs said. “I would have
expected our folks across the aisle to be the ones that were concerned about what happened in the last
election.”
Following this presentation, the Commissioners received a follow-up letter dated June 21 from Jan
Wenaas. In the letter Wenaas said that she wanted to know if action had been taken on the information
“her group” had presented at the April meeting. She also presented her analysis of certain election
software and audit procedures.
On June 24th Deputy County Attorney, Jennifer Quick, responded to the points in Wenaas previous letter with a four-page memo to the County Commissioners. Though the memo obviously took hours to
prepare, in essence the response to Wenaas was that items listed fall under the purview of the clerk and
recorder and/or the Secretary of State. On July 15th the County Commission formally responded to
Wenass and to her ally, Devereaux Biddick, using the information and memo from Deputy County
Attorney Quick.
On July 29 County Commission candidate Rae Grulkowski was back in front of the County Commission,
this time presenting a letter from Devereaux Biddick. In this letter Biddick alleged that the county
primary election did not conform to standards set by the Secretary of State. She requested two
precincts be “reviewed for reconciliation.”
Freemen revisited?
In the early 1990s Montana was plagued by the Freemen, a group conspiracy driven “wing nuts” who
attended public meeting making wild and unsubstantiated allegations of government misconduct. They
also filed blizzards of paperwork snowing over local elected officials. And when their demands weren’t
met, they convened their own courts and issued arrest warrants for local officials. They continued their
efforts to gum up the work of local and state government until the whole scheme came crashing down
in a confrontation with the FBI. At the end of the day these election deniers aren’t much different.
Who’s Who in the Big Lie?
Mark Cook (Mesa County, Colorado) Computer Expert Presenter
Theresa Manzella (legislator from Ravalli County area)
Ron Stahley (Cascade County Republican PAC)
Lou Zanto (Cascade County Republican PAC) – Realtor at Dustin Young & Company andPresident of Prairie
