Greetings! Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:
- Election Office Chaos
- U.S. Senate Montana 2024
- Pro-Hamas Demonstration?
ELECTION OFFICE CHAOS:
Apparently, there has been more chaos in the Cascade County Election Department. This time it was the canvassing process. I received several emails about the mess in the election office dealing with the two business day notice for public meetings and the requirement to have the canvass within 14 days of the election.
ABC/Fox Montana reported:
Originally planned for Monday, November 20 at 3:30, the General Municipal Election Canvass meeting was put on hold as some say it would have been an illegal meeting since the public didn’t have 48 hours notice.
The county uses “two business days” as the standard for 48 hours-notice.
Canvassing will take place in the Courthouse Annex at 325 Second Avenue North, on Wednesday, November 22 at 3:30 p.m., which goes beyond the 14-day deadline (law) for the canvass.
So, it looks like another rookie mistake from Elections Administrator Sandra Merchant. It’s getting old.
Cascade County Commissioner Joe Briggs was quoted in the ABC/Fox Montana article:
“Our entire governmental system is based upon trust in the election process, and that has been ongoing now for almost two years that we have had various groups of people questioning the integrity of the elections process. That is not something that we continue to allow. We’ve got to get things fixed. We’ve got to get things isolated from politics so that people trust that when they cast their ballot, it’s counted and it’s counted correctly. It started out being one section of the electorate, the far right, for lack of a better term, I hate labels, but just to give some context that we’re challenging the actions of the previous elections administrator. Now, that role has totally reversed. Now it is the folks on the Democratic side of the aisle who are questioning what’s going on. We’ve got to get to where everybody agrees that elections are safe and secure,”
Briggs seems to be saying the right things, but the question remains as to whether he has the guts to do anything about it.
Check out the ABC/Fox Montana story HERE. Check out the KRTV story HERE.
U.S. SENATE MONTANA 2024:
The Associated Press (AP) did a story about U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) with a rather long title, “A Montana farmer with a flattop and ample lobbyist cash stands between the GOP and Senate control.”
In case you did not know, Tester is running for reelection. The article was about 1,400 words.
The AP says that ousting Tester also would cement a Republican lock on a state that voted overwhelmingly for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. They also say that his campaign reports reveal abundant lobbyist cash, the kind that rarely comes from people who don’t want something, and yet the lawmaker’s journey from outsider to fundraising behemoth has largely been one of necessity. The AP concludes that there is nothing to indicate that money flowing Tester’s way swayed his decision-making or that he did anything wrong.
In today’s political climate, hundreds of people will be checking each and every donation and expenditure of candidates to try and find some wrong-doing or turn a small error into something it’s not. I bet Team Tester breathed a sigh of relief when the AP “Gods” reported, “there is nothing to indicate that money flowing Tester’s way swayed his decision-making or that he did anything wrong.”
Candidates sure don’t want the AP to be against them…
Check out the full article HERE.
PRO-HAMAS DEMONSTRATION?
Yesterday I wrote about a Montana Kaimin story that reported above the Washington-Grizzly Stadium Saturday a crowd was able to see Mount Sentinel’s “M” with colors draped over the letter to form a massive Palestinian flag.
U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy is active on social media and put the following message on X:
ICYMI: Far-Left, brainwashed members of the woke mob (a large portion of @jontester’s base that’s kept him in Washington for 18 years) tried to turn the Brawl of the Wild into a pro-Hamas demonstration. It’s misguided, disgusting, and must be condemned.
We need moral clarity. We must take back our state and our country.
He then provided a link to the Montana Kaimin article.
I don’t see the connection – the demonstrators displayed a Palestinian flag, not the Hamas flag. One person did ask Sheehy, “You do realize that Hamas and the Palestine people are not the same.”
Readers?
The Western Word 
Finally!
https://www.rawstory.com/luttig-trumpism-group/
Re: Cascade County Elections:
Jasmine Taylor has a video on her Facebook that indicates a number of people intend/intended to attend the canvass meeting and provide public comment about problems with the recent election. According to Taylor they had to scramble when they found out only very late about the un-properly notified Monday meeting. (And who knows if everyone who wanted to comment was going to be able to get down there on such short notice). Then the meeting was canceled.
https://www.facebook.com/jasmineforhd22/
This leads me to question (in an opinion which is solely mine) whether Merchant’s office had wind of the intent to air out the problems with this past election in public comment, and also whether the Friday scheduling of a Monday meeting with no standard two work days was a deliberate attempt by Merchant’s office to bury the canvass meeting, short-circuit her detractors, and sneak the meeting by without reading all the public comment into the record.
The appearance (in my opinion) of an attempt to intentionally suppress public comment is very troubling and just adds to more public distrust of that office. As Commissioner Briggs said in his comments in the ABC/Fox story, it is time to get the elections process under control and restore public trust. Merchant’s office continues to do just the opposite of that, whether intentionally or through simple incompetence. She’s been in the office for an entire year now and had two elections prior to this one to learn from (which also took place on a Tuesday and had to be canvassed within 14 days following). These things should not be continuing to happen. The excuses from her office and apologia from her hyper-partisan supporters are wearing thin. Just do the damn job.
Great points. Thank you. -JmB
Joe Briggs actually favors hiring an election administrator to make that position non-elected. It’s Jim Larson who needs to be convinced.
You are correct. I guess he’s gotten a little more braver since he decided he was not running again. Thanks, JmB
Holy Jesus! Wait ‘til Timmy sees the famous peace sign on the hill above Missoula. That otter make Sgt. She/he squeal like a seal! And he’s fighting’ mad and ready to take “our” state back using every piece of pander he can dream up! Problem is, that peace sign has been up there for so long I don’t think anyone can remember when it was put up there! So he’s taking us back to where? A time when Missoula wasn’t a hippie dippie liberal pot smokin’ paradise? What did that look like and how will Timmy recreate that? I don’t think anyone alive remembers.
But where’s J.C. Moore when we need him. He needs to do a cartoon of Timmy “Roosevelt” She/he leading the charge up Mt. Sentinel astride his horse, sword drawn and waving in the air, advancing on the woke brigade entrenched in their redoubt by the M, for the last thing we need in Missoula is a bunch of long haired wokies! Right? Timmy’s gonna straighten them long hairs out once and for all. The SEAL way!
There’s a reason that much of the world hates Israel. People in this country are just starting to understand the fascist apartheid vicious policies of Israel. But the rest of the world has known for a long time. And they’ve had enough. Hence the largest protests the world has ever seen. If the right wing fascist government of Netanyahu doesn’t figure it out, it isn’t going to end well for anyone. If Ronald Reagan was able to call what they did In Lebanon a Holocaust, we should be able to call Gaza a Genocide. An excellent article follows on the situation and how it needs to be resolved:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/ghosts-lebanon
I read that according to a poll, 75% of the Palestinians approved of the Oct. 7th attack. I guess that means 25% are not the same.