Cascade County, Montana
Can we fuck around with elections more? Asked no voter ever. But our joke of a state senator Jeremy Trebas can’t help but keep picking the wrong side of every issue.
Trebas’s latest dumbassery is Senate Bill 128, which has now been voted out of committee. SB 128 would prevent county government from removing “the election administration responsibilities from the county clerk and recorder during the county clerk and recorder’s current term in office. The governing body may remove the election administration responsibilities of the county clerk and recorder for future terms of office”.
Why is Trebas sponsoring this bill?
SB 128 is a response to the chaos Republican Sandra Merchant unleashed in the Cascade County Elections Office. As a reminder, when election denier Sandra Merchant was elected as the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder, she fumbled election after election costing taxpayers thousands in legal fees. The all-Republican Cascade County Commission realized Merchant was not able to adequately perform her election job duties, and the County Commission voted to place the election administration duties under their purview instead. Trebas whined about it before, because he hates local government, so his moronic bill attacking local government control is no surprise.
*Jeremy Trebas, basically
What are the effects of this bill?
The majority of Montana counties have election administration duties performed by the County Clerk and Recorder. A handful, for example, Missoula County, and now Cascade County, have a hired professional rather than the Clerk and Recorder handle the election duties.
SB 128 would be effective immediately if passed, which would be relevant to OTHER Montana counties where election administration is currently being performed by the County Clerk and Recorder. But since it’s not retroactive, it appears to have no effect on the change in election administration in Cascade County.
Why should we care?
All of us should be concerned about this bill, because yet again the legislature is mucking around in a local issue and trying to decide what is best for a county over duly elected, LOCAL officials. Trebas likes this bill, because he doesn’t like local government being run by local people. Jeremy said during the committee hearing on SB 128 that the bill is about “giving voters what they wanted.” Yeah, fucking right. Unless the voters don’t vote how he wants or if the people that are elected like county commissioners don’t do what he wants.