Hello friends! Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:
> Canvass Of Election Results
> U.S. Senate Montana 2024
> Reading Assignments
> One More Thing
CANVASS OF ELECTION RESULTS:
According to several sources, the canvass of election results for the Municipal General elections in Cascade County was completed on Wednesday,
I don’t think many voters will feel comfortable or have trust in the process after reading the article (link below) from The Electric.
The Electric reported that County Commissioner Joe Briggs said that in the reports provided for the first meeting, by precinct, it showed 51 more votes ran through the tabulator than the elections office accepted into the state system. He said the new numbers had narrowed that gap to 32.
During the canvass, Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant said, “You could keep playing around with these numbers if you wanted to and come up with different numbers every time.”
Comments like those from Merchant won’t make many people have faith in the people running the election office these days.
Also, from The Electric:
Several members of the public said during the meeting that the canvass of the November municipal election was the first that had been done according to state law, insinuating that all previous canvasses had been conducted improperly, to include two canvasses conducted this year under Merchant.
I suspect these people are the MAGA folks.
You can read the full report from The Electric HERE.
U.S. SENATE MONTANA 2024:
A new poll from Morning Consult provided good news for U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and bad news for the Montana Republicans trying to oust him.
Tester’s approval rating is one of the highest in the nation according to the poll. In a poll of Montana residents conducted from August to October of this year, 61% approve of Tester with 31% disapprove, The rest have no opinion. Montana’s other Senator, Steve Daines, comes in with 51% approve and 37% disapprove. Daines is not up for reelection.
The Republicans and their supporters have already thrown a ton of negative ads at Tester. Apparently, the ads have not worked.
The full Morning Consult report was posted on the Helena IR website HERE.
READING ASSIGNMENTS:
The Montana Free Press (MTFP) says they have combed through their notes, email inboxes and press clippings in an effort to round up the candidates who are publicly considering running for state or federal office in 2024. Check out the comprehensive report HERE.
Snopes provides information about social media posts that claim an Apple iPhone AirDrop feature called NameDrop poses a threat to users’ privacy and security. They rate the claim as false. Check it out HERE.
ONE MORE THING:
I don’t want to jinx it, but I “might” have that procedure done that has been scheduled three times before. It may take place on Thursday.
See you on the other side…
## THE END ##
The Western Word 
There was also another story about Tuesday’s ouster of Rae Grulkowski as chairman of the CC commission that had some interesting tidbits, both about the ongoing canvass saga as well as Rae’s tenure as chairperson.
Most interesting was the revelation that after Briggs and Larson said they would not attend the initial canvass meeting because it would be an illegal meeting, Grulkowski went behind their backs and tried to enlist some other people to do it. Grulkowski claimed she was just following procedure, but what the law says is, “If one or more of the members of the governing body cannot attend the meeting, the member’s place must be filled …”. Cannot attend is quite a different kettle of fish than “will not attend because the meeting is illegal”. But apparently Grulkowski in her infinite government experience made the unilateral determination that the meeting would not be illegal, and running interference for her fellow right wing extremist conspiracy theorist Merchant was more important than being part of the commission team.
Next up was the explanation of how that canvass meeting came to be short-noticed in the first place : “[Admin Assistant] Phillips said she was told by Merchant to put the canvass on the schedule, and said that ball got dropped after she took time off to attend to one of her sick children. “I didn’t know what the canvass was, so in my honest ignorance, I was thinking ‘canvas,’ like a painting or something,” she said.” So, apparently untrained assistant, lack of communication to that assistant from Merchant about what a “canvass” even is, and important work doesn’t get done at the county if someone’s kid gets sick. Sounds like a real well-run office there.
And finally for special notice from this story is all the whining about Rae not getting “help” prior to meetings from the other commissioners, as opposed to just the legal dept, even though those two or more commissioner help sessions themselves would have constituted a quorum and required extra public meetings. With proper notice. Now compare and contrast with what Rae said in the KRTV story: “In our world here, the Chair takes a hold of the meetings and we sign a few choice documents… Just like the Mayor would sign in the city. Other than that, there was no specific duties, including setting our meeting agendas.” So if that’s all there is to it, what’s all this help you need?
And there’s so much more.
Taken together, all the statements and contradictions and glaring failures detailed in the various news stories of the past few days paint a picture of two people, Grulkowski and Merchant, who are far far over their heads in their jobs, county offices in disarray, and county staff at each others’ throats thanks to the extremist politics of these two. Which might be expected when the people elect the owner of a drain cleaning company and a horse trainer to do those jobs, simply because they are right wing extremist conspiracy theorists.
Latest story from the Daily Montanan:
https://dailymontanan.com/2023/11/28/cascade-county-commission-votes-to-restructure-chairperson-selection-process/
There were a number of questions that came up from yesterday’s canvass finale. The most glaring was the one you pointed out, what Merchant said about “come up with different numbers every time”. No no no. Sorry Sandra. The goal is to come up with the same numbers every time. THAT is what instills confidence in the process.
There was also Briggs’ claim that the numbers they provided yesterday were different numbers than last week. WTF? Why was that? did anyone explain? Sounds like incompetence the first time around.
They must have been different, though, because last week there was some big discrepancy between Sandra’s numbers an the numbers at the SOS office for the town of Cascade, but yesterday Briggs was happy. So what happened, intrepid reporters? Magic?
Also troubling that there were still 32 more votes run through the County’s tabulator system than were accepted at the State level. The Electric story does not say how that was resolved.
It also seems Merchant can’t even get along with the SOS office.
And as for that state law that wasn’t or maybe now this time was being followed, I just can’t find it. There’s some more detailed administrative guidelines from the SOS office, but as far as actual law all I can find is 13-15-403: It has very few details. So what is the actual case? Or is there some other law?
https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/title_0130/chapter_0150/part_0040/section_0030/0130-0150-0040-0030.html
Overall Ms. Merchant’s canvass of this election sounds like a real cluster, and does not bode well at all for next year’s much larger election. If there’s some real close votes for meaningful offices, how is anyone right or left supposed to believe her numbers? Hopefully the commission will work independently with the SOS office and other counties to determine the actual required and standard procedures, find out all the reports available and required to support the canvass, and insist the elections office prepare proper packets ahead of time.