Former 'MAGA Candidate' for Congress caught stealing election ballots, charged with felony, police say

Source: Law & Crime

Oct 29th, 2024, 5:43 pm


A 51-year-old former Republican congressional candidate in Indiana was arrested this week for allegedly stealing ballots during a public test of the state’s ballot card voting system. Larry Savage Jr., an elected precinct committeeman, was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count of felony destroying or misplacing ballots and one count of misdemeanor theft, authorities announced.

In May, Savage came in 6th place in the Republican primary for Indiana’s Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, garnering 1.9% of the vote. On his campaign’s Facebook page, Savage writes, “I am a MAGA Candidate for U.S. Congress 2024” and that one of his reasons for running is to bring back “fair, transparent elections.” According to a news release from the Indiana State Police, the incident took place during a test of the Voting System Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP) at the Madison County Government Center on Oct. 3, 2024.

“The test requires manual entry of a pre-audit group of ballots marked to record a predetermined number of valid votes for each candidate and on each public question,” police explained in the release. “After the testing process, the ballots used are treated as if they were used on election day. Before the ballot card voting system can be used in an election, the machines are required to be tested openly to representatives of political parties, candidates, media, and the public.”

The Oct. 3, test involved four voting machines and 136 “actual candidate ballots marked for testing,” investigators said. Following the test, officials said they discovered that two ballots were missing from the initial ballot tabulation. An investigation revealed several videos that allegedly showed Savage being instructed on the validity of the test ballots and then “folding and placing both ballots in his pocket.”

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/crime/theyre-coming-after-us-patriots-former-maga-candidate-for-congress-caught-stealing-election-ballots-charged-with-felony-police-say/