Training prepares judges for primary elections

SANDERS COUNTY - The county is running through the final preparations for the June 3 primaries following two days of election judge training in Thompson Falls and Plains.

On Wednesday, May 21 and Thursday, May 22, around 80 citizens who will serve as election judges completed the election training class. Following the training, the certification received by all participants is valid for two years, at the end of which they will undergo a new round of training if they wish to continue as an election judge.

Election judges are critical for elections throughout Montana, making sure polling places and counting centers are up and running throughout counties during primary and general elections.

Trained individuals help ensure the state’s elections remain secure, fair, accurate and accessible to all registered voters, especially in the rural areas of Sanders County.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, county judges must be 18 years of age or older, registered to vote and a resident of the county they would like to serve in. A third caveat involves attending one of the aforementioned training sessions.

Nichol Scribner, clerk and recorder for Sanders County, ran the training. Scribner also serves as the county’s election administrator, and the two-days of training were meant to supplement the Montana election handbook, distributed to the county election judges.

According to Scribner, the training covered a wide range of topics, focusing mainly on state laws for running an election.

“The training encompasses everything from opening to closing polling places,” Scribner said.

One training session was held at the senior citizen center in Thompson Falls and the other main session took place at the senior citizen center in Plains.

Scribner mentioned the training also covered procedures for counting votes, since results are not tallied on site.

Following the two days of training, additional sessions were held on a much smaller scale. On Wednesday, May 28 individuals interested in becoming election judges attended training. These individuals were unable to make it to the first two sessions.

Additionally, there will be a final training session held on Monday, June 2, two days before the federal and local primary elections.

With three of the four instructional sessions complete and a majority of election judges ready to ensure the primary elections go off smoothly, Scribner was very positive of the countywide training.

“The training went really well, we had a lot of new people sign up to be election judges and there were a lot of questions during the training,” Scribner said.

The county used training materials provided by the Montana Secretary of State in addition to making use of the state’s Uniform Voting and System Procedures Guide.

The Sanders County Election Office annually prepares for and conducts all the elections held within the county, with the exception of school district elections, which are conducted by schools.

Preparations for county elections include certifying the local ballot, preparing ballot layouts, assembling and distributing supplies for the election, and conducting the training of election judges who will serve at polling stations throughout Sanders County.