New Cascade County Election Administrator hopes to turn page on office controversy
Terry Thompson is facing a dauntingly steep learning curve as she prepares for the impending election season. She completed her first work day as Cascade County’s new Election Administrator less than three weeks ago, and now faces a compressed election schedule while simultaneously guiding her office beyond what was a tumultuous prior year.
On Thursday Thompson greeted candidates for county precinct judge during a training session at the county fairground's Paddock Club. Around 25 men and women, most of retirement age who had applied to attend the 3½-hour class on how to run local elections. In total, 100 to 120 eligible candidates were expected to apply before the end of the weekend.
It's a good turnout, with many new faces among those who have previously served as an election judge. Thompson said she hopes it represents a new opportunity to leave the controversy of the past year behind, which culminated when county commissioners stripped County Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant of her election administration duties.
“A lot of people have been coming into the office, emailing, calling me, giving support – and looking forward to things calming down a little bit and getting the spotlight off of the office,” Thompson said. “I have a great team of people who work really hard, and they’re looking forward to the chaos going away as well.”
She has little time before her effectiveness as a leader will be tested. Mail-in ballots for the May 3rd school board elections go out in six weeks. Ten days after voters have cast their ballots for school board, a new tranche of absentee ballots for the June 7th Montana primary election are supposed to be in the mail. It's a tight schedule.
“Potentially we have three school districts (including Great Falls) and a water district special election to get done and then we turn around 30-days later to do the primary, which is going to have multiple ballot measures in it,” Thompson said of the quick turnaround. “The mail-in balloting is a lot of work, but we already have all the ballots ready to go for the Great Falls School Board election.”
On the job training
That tight schedule comes as Thompson is still working to learn her job. She's served as CEO of the Great Falls Realtors Association and owns a leadership/business consulting firm, but has no prior experience in election administration. It’s a fact that raised some voices of concern when the commissioners appointed her - that the elections office wouldn't be subjected to the missteps and delayed election results that plagued the Merchant administration.
“First of all, no election administrator has experience when they start,” Thompson said of concerns about her inexperience. “A lot of them are elected, but you don’t have to have any qualifications to be elected as an election administrator. It’s not a degree, there’s no certification. It’s on the job training, and I’m starting out like the prior administrators.”
She said she’s been putting in long days and nights for weeks now, both completing her tasks at the election office and getting in as much training as she possibly can before the elections begin.
“My husband doesn’t hardly ever see me,” Thompson said of her daily schedule. “I’m on the computer at home taking all the county employee training and tests that I have to do, so every night it’s another 11 or 12 o'clock at night before I shut the computer off.”
Thompson acknowledged that she will lean heavily upon the support of her staff and other more experienced election officials to ensure the integrity and efficiency of the 2024 election year in Cascade County.
“I’ve gotten calls already from the Secretary of State’s office and from other elections administrators from around the state saying we’re here for you, we’re a resource you can use,” she said.
She also gave a lot of praise for the experience and hard work of the county’s election judges.
“I can’t overemphasize the importance of the experience of the people who have done this,” she said of the small community of people who choose to serve on a regular basis. “They really know their jobs and they’re a great help.”
Why election judges matter
Becoming an election judge in Montana isn’t automatic. After completing mandatory training judges are appointed by the county commissioners from lists of candidates nominated by the central committees of the local political parties.
There are 26 voting precincts in Cascade County. At least three election judges be appointed from each precinct, including one Chief Election Judge who provides support for the other judges. State law requires that to the extent possible the commissioners must appoint judges to fairly represent all political parties eligible to participate in the election.
Election judges and election office staff are the only people authorized to handle ballots and official election records. They are there to make sure electors are qualified to vote, to issue provisional or absentee ballots to those who are not registered or lack the proper identification, general ballot counting and tabulating procedures, as well as ensuring the proper chain of custody of all ballots received, and assisting voters who’ve made a mistake or unintentionally spoiled their ballot.
“The judges are the ones administrating the process of the entire election,” said Thompson.
However, it's an aging community of volunteers. Most experienced election judges are retired. Few at Thursday’s training appeared to be younger than 50. Thompson said she has a vision of how to attract some younger voters to become election judges.
“I would love to set up an internship with the University of Providence and the College of Great Falls to have students come to participate and get trained to be judges as well,” she said. “I’m also hoping to go the high schools and teach them the importance of voting, whether it’s through their history class or their BPA (Business Professionals of America) chapter.”
Thompson noted that many young people who have reached 18 and older may not know how to register to vote or of the proper ID required to identify them of being of voting age.
That project will likely remain on the backburner for the foreseeable future. Thompson’s to do list already longer than the ballots she’s preparing.
This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Cascade County Election Administer faces daunting election schedule
