Lincoln Co. Election Office moves operations to courthouse

The Lincoln County Election Department has a new home, at least for the time being.

According to Election Department Administrator Melanie Howell, she and her assistant, Sierra Gustin, were asked to move their operations to the Clerk and Recorder’s Office in the courthouse. Their last day, for now, in the Election Office in the county Annex building was Tuesday, Nov. 21.

“I’m not sure why, but it was at the discretion of the Clerk and Recorder. It is offseason for us, but it’s not supposed to be permanent. We need the room in the old office to operate.”

Clerk and Recorder Corrina Brown said election department officials, “operating from the Clerk and Recorder's Office has become our standard practice. 

“This arrangement offers numerous benefits, especially in ensuring adequate staffing coverage in both areas, which becomes particularly challenging during the holiday season. Bringing everyone together helps our communication and coordination. We all participate in elections and our shared workload benefits everyone. The Election Center is essential to our operations as it accommodates large groups as necessary and securely houses equipment and supplies,” Brown said. 

The only public notification that has been made is a note taped to the door of the elections office that says, “We are currently working in the Clerk and Recorders Office in the Courthouse. If immediate assistance is needed, please call us at 406-283-2302 or 406-283-2304.”

Howell said she wasn’t given a specific date for when she and Gustin could return to the Election Office.

“I was told maybe March,” Howell said. 

When asked if she and Gustin were asked do work on anything outside of their election responsibilities, she said they hadn’t.

“We’ve got plenty to do in elections in our effort to keep improving,” Howell said.

Howell said the results of the Nov. 7 election were certified.

“They were certified on Nov. 16 and there won’t be any do-overs,” Howell said. “We were pretty solid. We issued new ballots to the voters in Eureka and we were able to resolve everything there.”

Absentee ballots for nearly 400 voters in Eureka were incorrect. The mistake on the initial ballot instructed voters to choose one candidate for city council, but there were two open seats.

Howell said Wednesday that she wasn’t sure of what the cost would be for the new ballots and associated costs.

Howell confirmed to the Tobacco Valley News the mistake happened within the elections department during the proofing process. She said her department received the correct information from Eureka and the printer was not responsible for the error.

There were no changes in the election winners following the certification process, but vote totals were quite a bit different in the Libby City Council race from the preliminary count to the final figures.

Preliminary numbers indicated 2,323 ballots were cast while the final tally showed a total of 2,597 ballots, a difference of 274 votes.

For three Libby City Council seats, Brian Zimmerman, Hugh Taylor and Ian Smith were the winners.

According to preliminary totals, Zimmerman received 568, but the final count had him with 570. For Taylor, the preliminary figure was 515 while final total was 596. Smith initially had 406 votes, but after the certification process, his final count was 465.

Vote totals were different for the other three men who also sought election.

In the final count, Brad Nelson received 65 more votes, D.C. Orr had 43 more and Zach McNew had 24 additional votes.

Howell said the final vote numbers changed due to the counting of provisional ballots by election judges a few weeks after the Nov. 7 election.

“Sometimes there are voters who register late or have address changes, so these need to be verified,” Howell said.

But, in an email from county Clerk and Recorder Corrina Brown on Thursday afternoon, the difference in votes was due to an additional, unopened box of ballots needed to be counted.

"We are striving to be more organized as we did have a judge team return the day after elections when an additional unopened box of ballots needed to be tallied," Brown wrote.

In a subsequent email from Howell, she tried to provide clarity about the discrepancy of the totals between preliminary and final counts.

"I just wanted to clarify, as it sounds like some miscommunication on the verbiage. The difference between what the totals were and what they are now was and has been the provisional ballots only," Howell wrote in an email to The Western News. "Those were in a box until we could process them according to Montana Rules, which is 6 days after the election, which was Nov. 13th. We had our judges come back in and count the provisional ballots. Then we had the canvass with the commissioners certify the results, thus giving the finalized results you see now. "

According to Montana law, an election administrator must count a provisional ballot if the individual's identity or eligibility is verified. This may be done by presenting a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check or other government document that shows the elector's name and current address.

In Troy, TJ Boswell and Jamie Shupe claimed four-year terms on the Troy City Council while Scott Hoffman won a two-year term.

In Rexford, Bill Marvel won the race for mayor while Neil Gardner claimed a town council seat while running unopposed.

Vote totals did not change in the Troy or Rexford elections.

In Eureka, Stormy Langston was unopposed and won the town judge post. For Eureka Town Council, Jim Monroe and Mike O’Neill were winners for the four-year term while Arthur Walters won a two-year term after not being opposed.

In the final count, Monroe and Jason Hayes each received one more vote than in the preliminary tally.

The 3% marijuana tax passed while a $17 million school bond for Eureka did not.

According to a Nov. 22 story in the Tobacco Valley News, Eureka Superintendent of Schools Joel Graves said the ballots in question were not enough to affect the result.