Former Republican candidate charged with stealing election ballots in Indiana

MADISON COUNTY, Ind. (WXIN) — A former Republican candidate running for an Indiana seat in the U.S. House of Representatives has been arrested and charged with stealing several election ballots during a recent voting machine test.

Larry L. Savage Jr., a candidate in the Republican 5th District primary held earlier this year, was arrested Tuesday morning by Madison County authorities and charged with destroying/misplacing a ballot and theft. He has since been released on a $500 cash bond.

Missing ballots

The charges filed against Savage, a 51-year-old Anderson resident and precinct committeeman, stem from an incident on Oct. 3 in which two election ballots went missing at the Madison County Government Center during testing of the local voting machines.

Court documents show county officials began testing voting machines at 10 a.m. on Oct. 3, an event open to the public. Several citizens attended the tests and were allowed to run "test" ballots through the machines assigned to their county.

Despite being marked "test," the ballots were still officially tracked and counted by the State and included real candidate names as well as differing votes. After testing, officials found one straight-Republican ballot and one write-in ballot were missing.

A review of security footage, which was streamed online, showed Savage handling the two missing ballots. He can also be heard confirming with an election official that these are "absolutely, totally real ballots."

In the video, Savage can be seen looking around the room before folding up two ballots and putting them in his sweatshirt pocket.

After this, Savage is seen leaning over to a woman in attendance and saying "f---ed up count." Less than 10 minutes later, Savage is seen leaving the building and showing a man the ballots in his pocket. The man then pats Savage on the back and Savage gets into his car and leaves.

The woman Savage spoke with after the ballots were stolen was also streaming the event on Facebook Live. Soon after Savage leaves, the woman can heard confronting election officials and asking them if they are missing ballots.

After leaving, Savage reportedly joined the woman's Facebook Live on his "Cardkiller57" account and commented several things including "3 ballots short!!! lol" and "Dontvtake [sic] anything." These comments can be seen below:

After it was determined that Savage was likely the person responsible for the missing ballots, police were granted a warrant to search his car and home. That same night, around 8 p.m. on Oct. 3, officers went to Savage's home to execute the warrant.

Warrant and admission

Savage reportedly greeted officers at his front door and admitted to taking the ballots before they even finished reading the warrant.

"You talking about the ballot the lady told me I could take," Savage said. "I got the paper you're talking about. I just rolled it up and put it in my pocket. I wasn't trying to steal from nobody."

The ballots were then found in the back seat of Savage's black 2018 Honda Civic.

Savage reportedly began blaming other Madison County officials for this becoming a criminal incident, telling officers that "this is all political bulls--- is all it is."

When told that the security video did not show Savage ever asking permission to take the ballots, Savage reportedly admitted that he did not. He told officers that he thought he could take the ballots because they were marked "sample," he said.

"If you go to Payless, or go wherever, it says sample and you usually can take a sample," Savage said. "So that is the way I took it. I thought they were fake f---ing ballots."

However, officials noted that the ballots never said the words "fake" or "sample."

Savage told Nexstar's WXIN that he did not mean to hurt anyone and was "just trying to fight for our country."

"At no time did I have any malintent (sic). At no time did I actually think that was a real ballot. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. And if I did, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to fight for our county," Savage said. "I didn’t do anything with any malintent (sic) at all. I love the people that I serve. I’m an elected official. I would never do anything to hurt anybody. I want to help people. That’s pretty much all I can say, but the truth is going to come out, and I am an innocent man."

Further investigation and arrest

Court documents detail how text messages found on Savage's phone show he did, in fact, know that the ballots were not just fake. Furthermore, both stolen ballots were clearly marked "IT IS A CRIME TO FALSIFY THIS BALLOT OR VIOLATE INDIANA ELECTION LAWS."

Police continued to look into Savage's activity on Facebook for further evidence that he intentionally stole the ballots. In one post, Savage said he is demanding "fair, transparent elections" to help "restore trust and protect civil rights."

After consulting with the Madison County Prosecutor's Office, two official charges were filed against Savage:

• Destroying or Misplacing a Ballot - Level 6 Felony
• Theft - Class A Misdemeanor

Indiana State Police said Tuesday that Savage turned himself in around 9:30 a.m. at the Madison County Jail after an arrest warrant was issued.

On Tuesday afternoon, Indiana State Police released a statement explaining Savage's alleged crimes.

"The Voting System Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP) is designed to test all the election equipment used in Indiana for an added layer of safety and security. 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. 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.

During the test, which involved four voting machines and 136 actual candidate ballots marked for testing, officials discovered that two ballots were missing after an initial tabulation. A subsequent investigation revealed videos of Savage folding and placing both ballots in his pocket after receiving instructions about the validity of the test ballots. A judge granted a search warrant that law enforcement executed at Savage's residence, where officers found the missing ballots in his vehicle."

- Indiana State Police

Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings described the act as a deliberate attempt to "undermine our election process."

"This was an act that feeds into that concern that a lot of voters have about the integrity of our process," Cummings said. "And it simply wasn’t necessary. This is corruption. This is corruption at its core. To undermine our election process is unacceptable. And our office needed to take action."

An initial hearing in Savage's case, filed in Madison Circuit Court 6, had not yet been scheduled as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.