(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Watchdog group says Cascade County commissioner needs to recuse herself from elections decision – Daily Montanan [1] ['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- January'] Date: 2024-01-29 A local citizen elections watchdog group in Cascade County is asking for a county commissioner to recuse herself from elections discussions, citing language in a recently passed controversial resolution barring her from participating. Resolution 23-62 removed election administration duties from previous Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant and passed in December after more than seven hours of divided public comment. Merchant supporters are currently gathering signatures requesting the commission rescind its resolution. The commission voted Monday to establish election fees for the upcoming Great Falls Public School District board election in May. The commission will decide Tuesday whether to run the election as an all-mail or hybrid poll election, with the district confirming Monday the board wishes to conduct an all-mail election. The Election Protection Committee’s letter to the commission, dated Thursday and read to commissioners during a meeting Monday, requests Commissioner Rae Grulkowski abstain from elections conversations as the resolution requires, citing her active participation in meetings surrounding the upcoming Great Falls Public Schools election. The resolution passed after months of controversy and legal intervention centering on how Merchant handled elections in Cascade County. Grulkowski served as committee chairperson for the better part of the year but the commission voted to change how chairpersons are selected late last year, and unanimously voted Commissioner James Larson chairperson earlier this month. The resolution says any commissioner whose seat will be on the ballot that calendar year is required to “abstain from all decisions concerning the operation and management of the election office during that calendar year until such time as the election for said office is finalized.” Grulkowski was elected to serve out the final two years of former Commissioner Jane Weber’s term, meaning her seat applies under the resolution. The group said instead of complying with the resolution, Grulkowski is continuing to “promote her agenda for the elections office and delay the hiring of a professional election administrator who will move elections management in a positive direction.” “We have serious concerns that her participation in any election management discussions, including the hiring process, during this calendar year is designed to impede elections and interfere with meeting the tight elections timelines,” the letter read. Grulkowski was not immediately available for comment by phone on Monday. A handful of the Grulkowski’s supporters said she should be allowed to participate in elections discussions, saying it wouldn’t be fair if she wasn’t allowed because they say former Commissioner Don Ryan, a Democrat, did so. “When Commissioner Ryan was still Commissioner, he was very actively involved in the commission meetings even though his term was up,” said resident Jan Wenaas. “So I think we need to be consistent in what we’re doing with each term of commissioners. I take exception to that.” Former Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore told the Daily Montanan Ryan and Commissioner Joe Briggs recused themselves during election canvassing. Pete Fontana, member of the Election Protection Committee alongside Moore, said there also wasn’t a resolution in place at the time barring Ryan from participation, so he wasn’t violating anything. Moore was skeptical of the costs being discussed, saying the county paid a lower rate for postage with a non-profit status. “We paid anywhere between eight and 11 cents per ballot, versus what now, they’re talking 62 cents,” she said. “They’re gonna try to inflate everything to make it look like the poll election is cheaper than the mail ballot.” Grulkowski and interim election administrator Interim Election Administrator Devereaux Biddick supported the hybrid poll model in a meeting last week. Biddick, Grulkowski and Merchant have run in election denial circles in Great Falls. Fontana said mail-in voting is seen as more economical in part because you don’t have to pay for labor at the polling location. School superintendent Tom Moore said last year’s election cost $46,000, but Moore said it was likely $20,000 more than that accounting for the mishaps in Merchant’s office. The school district held a hybrid-poll election, with absentee ballots sent out to voters who requested them, but some voters said they could not fit their ballots in the return envelope and others claimed they received multiple ballots. Last fall, the school district sent a letter to county commissioners requesting the county absorb election administration duties, citing a lack of communication from Merchant, which she denied. Moore also said there was a record with the breakdown for every election in the system in the elections office, and that much of the estimation work done Monday wasn’t necessary. Anne Brust, with the committee, said the decision on whether to hold an in-person or all mail-in election wasn’t the commission’s to make. The school district’s contract stipulated the district gets to make that call. “I feel like the commission right now is in this weird position where they’re not accustomed to actually being in charge of election,” Brust said. “The contract is between Cascade County and the county and the school district. And whoever’s in that position is just the department head that needs to execute the contract. It’s just bizarre to me.” The commission will meet with the district Tuesday at 10 a.m. to make a final decision on how the election will be conducted. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/01/29/citizen-watchdog-group-says-cascade-county-commissioner-needs-to-recuse-herself-from-elections-conversations/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/