I have watched Monty Jensen's YouTube videos about voting in Crow Wing county. You can watch them here. Why would I challenge Monty Jensen's integrity, his accusation? Because of all the things wrong with what he has said.
Monty Jensen claims that there were 20 to 25 disabled people milling about at the Crow Wing County courthouse auditor's area on Friday, October 29th, at 4:30 to 4:45 p.m.
There was one group of disabled people voting that afternoon; and they were there around 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m, not 4:30 - 4:45. They were residents from the Clark Lake group home; they came in two mini-vans, vehicles which could not possibly accommodate 25 people. There were 8 disabled people, 4 in each minivan, with 2 staff members for each group of 4. That makes 8 disabled people, and 4 staff; not 20 to 25.
Monty Jensen is off by a factor of three times the number of disabled people involved in his accusation.
One of these people was in a wheel chair; Monty Jensen makes no mention of this. He describes the disabled people as wandering around, and he repeatedly throughout his video refers to these disabled individuals as mentally incapacitated.
Monty Jensen cannot by casual observation determine the level of function of disabled people. Monty Jensen claims that these people were unable to vote themselves, specifically that the disabled didn't know where they were and didn't know they were participating in voting.
The disabled voter themselves argue that they have previously voted, and that they were able to designate the candidates for whom they voted. The auditor's staff were very clear that, as election officials, they did not see what Monty Jensen claimed, and assert that they would have intervened if they had seen what Monty Jensen claimed.
Monty Jensen claims that the assistants told the disabled people to vote for Democratic candidates. The disabled people themselves insist that some of them have in fact voted on that afternoon for Republican candidates and that they voted for Republicans in the past.
Monty Jensen and his associates claimed these people were 'turned away' from the polls, and this was why they voted absentee. It is untrue. These people HAD previously voted at the polls. The allegations about the disabled were in accurate every step of the way, and the accusations were clearly made to serve their agenda.
Monty Jensen claimed that he was told 'this is the 4th group today'. Because Monty Jensen wants people to believe that widespread voter fraud takes place when it does not. The staff of the auditor's office quite specifically denied making that statement to Monty Jensen, and there was in fact only the Clark Lake Group of disabled voters voting on October 29th. So it would be implausible to believe Monty Jensen's version of the conversation.
If you don't accept the story that Monty Jensen is telling, which is refuted by the Crow Wing county investigation, then there is no reason to believe Monty Jensen. He is wrong on every point.
If you don't accept Monty Jensen's story that he can tell people who are qualified to vote from a person who is not, then his story falls apart. If you don't accept that Monty Jensen approached a disabled voter - and they are specific Monty Jensen did not approach them while they voted, then the story falls apart. If you don't accept that the family or guardians of the disabled voters would object to their family members or client would go along with the kind of behavior that Monty Jensen describes then Monty Jensen's story falls apart.
The only person who comes out a hero in his account is Monty Jensen. Monty Jensen is no hero to the disabled voters he insulted. There is no reason to believe Monty Jensen about anything.
So........why would I think there might be a set up, claiming, oh.......that AFSCME or SEIU union members were somehow rigging the vote, and doing so by somehow hijacking disabled voters? Here is why. A convenient story, one that suddenly got short shrift when I pointed out that it was easy to check the truth of such a fear by looking at the voting registration. There are records when people vote.
Oh look... Jensen's story is one more instance of a right wing group making the exact same claim. A claim that once again, doesn't hold up to the scrutiny of an investigation. One where Mitch Berg then interviews Monty Jensen on his radio show.
Coincidence? Not bloody likely. A lie? Sure looks like it to me.
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