By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – During a highly contentious weekly business meeting, the Hill County Commissioners voted 2-1 against holding a mail-in ballot 2020 general election.
Diane McLean and Mark Peterson voted against the proposal, while Mike Wendland was in favor.
Peterson said that personally he supported the measure, but public comments he received through email and phone calls against the resolution led to his vote.
During the meeting, Clerk and Recorder Susan Armstrong and Deputy Election Administrator Kaci Hipple provided detailed reasons why a mail-in general election would be the right move, especially after the mail-in primary saw record turnout and few issues.
“Montana saw record turnout and recorded results on election night,” Hipple said. “The main concerns I am hearing are that people are concerned about the security of mail ballot elections, and about the right to vote in person. Again, I want to remind you that voters will be able to vote in person…When it comes to security, I have not seen any evidence that mail ballot elections are more susceptible to fraud. I understand that many people feel that this is not the case. In talking with voters, I have found that a lot of concerns come from inaccurate information, especially comments and posts from social media accounts from people that don’t understand Montana election law.”
There were three members of the public in attendance. All three were against mail-in voting, although two of them said they were more open to it, but still against the proposal, after hearing from the Election Administrators.
Prior to the vote, Peterson proposed tabling the resolution for one week to allow for more public comment. However, the motion was not seconded, leading to the eventual 2-1 vote against the resolution.
Also prior to the vote, McLean, who says she has been getting mail ballots for the last few years, spoke against mail-in voting, adding that she believes the Election Administrators can’t require Election Judges or voters to wear masks at polling locations.
“We’ve had so many conflicting comments, back and forth, back and forth. I think it’s time to get back to normal as much as we can get back to normal. And I totally support in-person voting and us being in the normal pattern of things that we can be in normal for. And if you think you can require judges to wear masks, they do not have to disclose to you their medical conditions that may or may not allow them to wear masks. You cannot ask them that question. That is HIPAA regulations. So if you think that because you don’t have a mask on, you can’t come in and vote? You better think again, because somebody will be slapping a lawsuit on you.”
Armstrong disagreed, saying that the Governor’s Mask Directive will have to be followed and blaming McLean for what she says was a disingenuous post on Facebook that lead to a rash of comments against the mail-in ballot resolution.
“We will have to wear a mask, we have to follow the Governor’s thing. And Diane, I can’t believe you would go out on Facebook and put out lies about us. That was just uncalled for.”
The resolution would have provided all Hill County registered voters with a mail-in ballot, with an additional option to vote in person at the County Courthouse between October 2nd and election day.
“We can drastically reduce the number of judges for in-person services,” Hipple said prior to the vote. “The time that would be spent processing absentee applications can be converted into time spent on processing return ballots. If it’s the CDC guiding principles, we can offer a variety of voting options over a longer period of time and reduce crowd sizes and reduce people congregating indoors.”
Now, Hill County Election Officials say they will have to scramble to prepare for the upcoming General Election.
Concerns raised included finding enough people willing to be Election Judges, prohibitive costs associated with COVID-19 prevention measures, and finding locations for polling places. Typical polling places such as Havre Middle School will not be available for the General Election unless Montana is in Phase 3 of reopening.
“In a typical poll election, you go to the precinct that you’ve been assigned to…Hill County has 17 precincts and normally six polling locations. We know we cannot utilize all of our usual polling places. The High School and Middle School are not available unless we are in Phase 3, and they have strict guidelines, and have strict guidelines in place to utilize the facility. One being facemasks are required for all judges and people entering the building. This affects eight precinct places in Havre. We are still waiting to hear back from the Community Center and Rocky Boy Wellness Center if it will be available, and we are still working with Rocky Boy with our satellite services that we offer out there. Montana law requires at least three judges per precinct table. We usually try to schedule between four and five. This allows judges to be prepared to handle rushes, take restroom breaks, not leaving ballots unattended, being able to offer curbside service for voters unable to enter the polling location, and allows for the inevitable last minute cancellation. Election Judges work from 6:30 AM until all ballots are reconciled around 9:30 or 10 PM. They cannot leave the poll unless of an emergency. If we continued with this process, we would want to make sure we could manage social distancing and disinfecting required for in-person events. We would look to assign five judges per precinct. So if we were to schedule five judges per precinct table, we would need to find and train 85 election judge workers…We would still have a lot of people late registering at the Courthouse on election day, and we would possibly be staffing a temporary position to accommodate hundreds of late registrations and absentee ballot processing.”
Hipple added that consolidating polling places may now be necessary.
“Consolidating polling places is not my recommendation because it poses risks to staff and voter’s health. Challenges we will be facing for November 3rd include recruiting and training enough judges, notifying electors about their polling relocations, keeping up with absentee demand, and the biggest being unknowns with the coronavirus creating the potential for last minute chaos and confusion.”
Hipple says she has reached out to people that have previous experience as Hill County Election Judges. 25 said they would be willing to work this November, six said it depends on if they have to wear personal protective equipment, and 12 said they wouldn’t be an Election Judge this year.
Before the meeting adjourned, Clerk and Recorder Susan Armstrong chastised the commissioners for voting down the resolution.
“I just think you know as well as I do that the mail ballot was the safest way for Hill County to go…I have employees out there that are very frustrated right now because you have no trust in your county employees.”
Voters who are registered as absentee will still have ballots mailed to them on October 9th, and the Clerk and Recorders Office will be open for early voting beginning on October 2nd.
According to the Election Administrators, Hill County currently has around 8,700 registered voters. This includes active and provisional voters. Around 5,200 of these voters have already registered to receive an absentee ballot.
