Letter to the Editor - April 17

To a large gathering of concerned residents in the courtroom last Thursday, Jennine Robbins and Bobbi Christensen from the Clerk & Recorder’s office, and the three commissioners informed the public of the proposal to consolidate several precincts, thereby, reducing the number of polling places.

I believe many in attendance had read the article / interview with Jennine in the previous week’s Ledger and were lead to believe the issues were those she had disclosed. They included economics, the extensive use of absentee ballots, increased poll operating expenses, the difficulty of finding and keeping election judges, and the boredom experienced by election judges at “slow” polling places.

I thought we would be presented with some hard figures for the costs of absentee voting, which would include those associated with the annual affidavit mailing, and real costs for voting at polling places. Jennine stated the consolidation would yield a savings of $32,000.00. A handout was provided that revealed the cost of programming the ballot counting machine was over $7,000; a suggestion was offered that it would cost considerably less to train and swear in a large number of people to hand count ballots. Additionally, hand counting would eliminate the difficulty the machine has in feeding the absentee ballots that have been folded and the resulting remarking of ballots by election workers to facilitate the count. This was shot down out of hand.

In the article it was noted the AutoMark machines will soon have to be replaced and “the cost has gone from $5000.00 each to $10,000.” At the hearing Jennine stated she didn’t know if or when the machines would have to be replaced nor what they cost currently.

I mentioned that some, perhaps not all, of us who train and serve as election judges would be willing to volunteer our services. Besides the hourly wage and mileage, it would surely save time in the Clerk & Recorder’s office to not have to quantify the hours and miles and then have checks cut and mailed. This has not been looked into.

Election judge boredom could be warded off by letting us do handwork or reading while waiting for the next voter to arrive; I do not believe any of us would act rudely, but would continue to respond in a prompt and courteous manner.

In the article, it stated that precinct committeepersons, for the two parties, may see some changes; at the hearing it was pointed out the number of party representatives would definitely be reduced. In our geographically elongated county with fair distances between each community, many did not think this was a good idea. Each community should be allowed to continue to have representation. That it was noted on the handout that a former party chair approached Jennine four years ago and Tony Cox stated they wanted to reach a decision within a few days, seems like it should be a non-issue; or perhaps at least not labeled as cause for rushed adoption of this proposal.

MCA 13-3-101 was noted. It mentions “equalizing the number of electors in each precinct as nearly as possible” but before that it states, “The governing body of each county shall establish a convenient number of election precincts, …” It doesn’t define what is meant by convenient but I believe that those in attendance, who voiced their concerns, would agree that the proposed combining of precincts, in our county, is not convenient. As people proffered, it would be logical to divide Thompson Falls and Plains into additional precincts, even if the other precincts were not combined.

Several residents stated their belief that this was the county government’s method of further encouraging voting by mail, and showed concern for potential miscounts, additionally noting Jennine’s mention of the use of absentee ballots; one commissioner stated vehemently that this is not the case.

I have urged the commissioners and clerk & recorder not to consolidate the precincts or the polling places as the reasons that were presented in the article and at the hearing, have far too many gaps in the reasoning. It is a concern that come hell or high water, or lack of facts, that this will be done. Please contact your elected representatives to know how you feel about this.

Respectfully,

Judy Woolley - Plains