No, Montana did not take Kamala Harris off the ballot. Election officials explain
After rumors and accusations circulated online over the weekend, Montana state election officials confirmed that they did not leave Vice President Kamala Harris off the ballot for the general election.
Absentee voting for oversee and military voters started Friday. Shortly after Montana's Electronic Absentee System went live at 8 a.m., the Secretary of State's Office received a report of the ballot not displaying correctly, took the system offline to troubleshoot and fixed the issue by Friday afternoon, the office said in a statement Monday.
Other ballots were not affected, the SOS office said.
"Contrary to egregious misinformation campaigns circulating online, the Montana Secretary of State's Office certified all qualified candidates to appear on its 2024 General Election ballot," the release stated, pointing to the list of candidates which includes Harris. "As always, voters should rely on Montana's trusted sources for credible election information, including the Secretary of State's Office and the state's 56 county election offices."
A spokesperson said the potentially impacted voter has been contacted and does not require further action.
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Unfounded claims of election fraud carry over into 2024 election
Donald Trump's continued refusal to accept his loss in the 2020 election contributed to a groundswell of concerns about widespread election fraud that have been repeatedly disproven. Trump and his allies tried pursuing legal action to dispute the election results in more than 60 cases, and all but one were dismissed.
Some people moved by Trump's false claims of election fraud turned to violence when a mob breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the election results. More than 1,000 people have been criminally charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol.
Despite the disproven claims of election misconduct, recent polling by the World Justice Project shows that nearly half of Republicans and about a quarter of Democrats said they would not accept the election results if their candidate loses.
A spring survey from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University showed that more than one-third of election officials experience harassment or abuse, and seven in 10 officials say threats increased from 2020.
Contributing: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris was not left off the general election ballot in Montana
