by Guest Writer | Mar 10, 2023 | Elections, Guest Articles
By Eric Buhler
Ranked-choice voting (RCV), also known as instant-runoff voting, is a nonpartisan voting system that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting a single candidate. In a ranked-choice voting system, voters mark their ballot by ranking the candidates in order of preference, such as first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on.
In the first round of vote counting, only the first-choice votes are counted. If one candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, that candidate wins the election. However, if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and then the second-choice votes on those ballots are counted instead. This process is repeated until one candidate receives a majority of the votes.
In our current plurality system, a candidate could win with a mere 33% of the vote. This leaves nearly 70% of voters not choosing the winner, sometimes feeling unrepresented, and caught in a game of splitting and wasting their vote. The purpose of RCV is to ensure that the winning candidate has broad support among voters. By allowing voters to rank candidates, RCV can reduce the impact of candidates splitting the vote, promote positive campaigning, and it has been shown to reduce the amount of wasted votes by three times.
A noisy minority, who don’t trust the intelligence of voters, testified at the hearing for HB 598 that RCV is complicated and claimed that voters are unhappy with RCV. However, a vast majority of those surveyed have found it very easy to use and want to use it again–between 75% and 94% (depending on the location surveyed).
RCV is used in several countries around the world, including Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. In the United States, several cities have adopted RCV for local elections, including San Francisco, Oakland, Austin, New York City, Minneapolis and twenty-three cities in Utah. Some states have also adopted RCV for statewide elections, including Maine and Alaska, and seven states use RCV for military and overseas voting.
However, in Montana, even though no jurisdiction uses RCV (and some would argue that our constitution does not currently allow it to be used), HB 598 seeks to preemptively ban RCV from being used or even considered in Montana.
When HB 598 reached the floor, State Administration Committee member, Rep. Paul Green, changed his vote. When he realized that this ban would expressly limit local communities from choosing RCV for their local elections, he went from supporting the ban to opposing the ban. Had he considered this before, this bill would have died in committee. Despite this important consideration, the ban passed the House on March 3rd, with fourteen Republicans and all Democrats opposing the ban. You will be happy to know that Great Falls representatives George Nikolakakos (HD26) and Scott Kerns (HD23) were among those opposing this ban.
We can still stop this ban. Please reach out to your Senators, especially committee member Sen. Wendy McKamey (SD12), and ask them to oppose this ban on RCV.
Eric Buhler is the Executive Director of RCV Montana, a grassroots nonpartisan nonprofit that seeks to educate Montana about alternative voting methods such as Ranked-choice Voting.
by WTF 406 Staff | Feb 20, 2023 | Elections
Before we get into the meat of some concerning personnel changes at the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder’s office, we need to remind ourselves that hiring political cronies and firing or harassing people because they worked for political opponents is illegal. Got that?
Senior Election Administrator Leaves Merchant’s Office
Since defeating long-time Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore by a mere 31 votes, Sandra Merchant has begun remaking the office to fit her conspiracy-laced agenda. First, Election Supervisor Lynn Deroche, who has worked in the Clerk and Recorder’s office for 16 years, has taken another job in county government at a much lower salary. It’s not clear whether she resigned or was fired. Deroche said that she provided notice that she was resigning after being frozen out of interoffice communication by Merchant.
As an example, Deroche said she was not allowed to participate in interviews to fill an open election specialist position, a position she supervised. Deroche said that after a month of being isolated in the office and just three days before she was scheduled to leave her position, Merchant asked her to explain how to conduct some up-coming elections. Deroche says she told Merchant three days was not enough time to teach Merchant how to administer an election. Some time later Deroche says she was summoned to the Human Resources Office and told she did not need to return to the Clerk and Recorder’s office but would still receive her last couple of days’ pay. End result is that the election supervisor job has been left vacant.
New Election Specialist – Connection to Merchant and Commissioner Grulkowski
In the meantime, interviews proceeded to fill an elections specialist position in the office. There was an applicant who was already in a temporary position in the office. She subsequently withdrew her application. The job was listed with the County Human Resource Office. County Commissioner Rea Grulkowski and Sandra Merchant were interviewers. Grulkowski, who also came into office in the last election, is an election denier who’s bizarre conspiracy theories were the subject of a New York Times article in October of 2021. (WTF 406 covered Grulkowski’s conspiracy theories and the New York Times piece in a previous article https://wtf406.com/2022/09/facts-no-match-for-fear-in-county-commission-race/ )
When the election specialist interview process was completed, the position was given to Devereaux Biddick. WTF406 has previously written about Biddick’s participation in the election denier group active in Cascade County. Last fall we reported, “On July 29 County Commission candidate Rae Grulkowski was back in front of the County Commission, this time presenting a letter from Devereaux Biddick. In this letter Biddick alleged that the county primary election did not conform to standards set by the Secretary of State. She requested two precincts be ‘reviewed for reconciliation.’”https://wtf406.com/2022/09/the-big-lie-in-cascade-county/
The election specialist job which Biddick received has starting pay of almost $40,000 per year and includes a full benefit package. The qualification statement for the position included a High School Diploma, GED or HSE, and three years of progressively responsible office experience in a team environment that preferably includes one year in an election-related environment and one year of legal experience and terminology.
WTF406 does not have access to Biddick’s application materials yet, but we would certainly hope that her experience dogging county officials with election fraud mythology was not included as “relevant” experience for the elections specialist position. That would be kind of like putting a flat earther in charge of NASA.
Is This Just the Beginning?
The fact is that recently elected County Commissioner Grulkowski and Clerk and Recorder Merchant, who have worked extensively together on their election denier mythology prior to being elected, have now offered a full-time permanent position to a friend of theirs who worked on the same effort. Biddick could be just the beginning of Sandra Merchant’s opportunities to move her cronies from the election denier crowd into government jobs at the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. The election supervisor job will be open thanks to Deroche’s resignation. In addition, the office has traditionally hired additional temporary employees to help during the election cycle.
We began this article by pointing out that this kind of cronyism is illegal. Specifically, the Governmental Code of Fair Practices prohibits discrimination in government employment based on political beliefs. If any of the unsuccessful applicants for the position decided to file a complaint under that law and won, we would all get to pay for the insider dealing of our newly elected county officials. We’ll stay tuned and keep watching.
by WTF 406 Staff | Feb 7, 2023 | Elections
Why are we Paying Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant $70,000 per Year?
After winning the election for Cascade County Clerk and Recorder by just 31 votes, Sandra Merchant doesn’t have as much to do as her predecessor, Rina Moore. But, she receives the same salary Moore did (around $70,000). We should be paying her less.
First, there is the matter of the surveyor duties of the office. The full title of the office is County Clerk and Recorder/Auditor/Surveyor. Rina Moore is a licensed surveyor and, therefore, performed the surveyor duties of the office. Sandra Merchant is not a licensed surveyor. So likely the County will have to pay a licensed surveyor to perform those duties. We don’t know what that cost is yet. But what we do know is that Merchant is receiving the same salary as Rina Moore but cannot perform the same duties.
Then there is the matter of the auditing duties which Moore was performing. Without getting too complicated, Moore basically oversaw the accounting functions of the County. At a January 10th meeting, the County Commissioners voted to take the auditing functions out of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office and place them in a new County FInancial Office. Merchant will have no role in overseeing the accounting of the county like Moore did.
Finally, there has been discussion among the County Commissioners of moving the elections function out of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. According to the Great Falls Electric, on November 14th, Commissioner Joe Briggs said that he plans to propose an ordinance to move county elections from the Clerk and Recorder’s Office to the County Commission. Probably a good move since Merchant appears to be an election denier who likely thinks all ballots should be voted with a quill pen, counted by hand, and tallied with an abacus.
Bottom line, Sandra Merchant is doing a much less complex and difficult job than what was done by Rina Moore . . .but the pay remains the same. The County Commission should review how the duties of the Clerk and Recorder have changed and adjust the pay accordingly.
by Guest Writer | Feb 6, 2023 | Elections
By Tawny Cale
In all seriousness, how do you celebrate Columbus Day? Do you take advantage of a big mattress sale? Do you walk into a random person’s home, set up shop, rob and exploit them?
What’s that? Oh, you don’t celebrate. Unless you are part of the problematically named Knights of Columbus, chances are Columbus Day means absolutely nothing to you. In fact, besides the sing-song “Back in 1492,” you probably don’t ever give much thought to Columbus.
But Indigenous People of the Americas do. Seeing the name pop up on the calendar every year is a stark reminder that upholding American mythology is more important than the actual history. More important than recognizing how today’s struggles that our communities face are the direct result of colonization and attempted genocide.
Now, Google is free so I will not lecture you with the laundry list of atrocities committed by Columbus and his men that were sanctified by the Doctrine of Discovery. But 500+ years later, we know and can do better. It’s time to shift the narrative perspective and amplify the voices that have been silenced or talked over. Let’s celebrate the contributions, resiliency, and beauty of your Indigenous neighbors, friends, and relatives.
Please join me in emailing or calling your legislators today and ask them to support SB 141. Mitakuye Oyasin. We are all related.
Tawny Cale is an enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and a resident of Great Falls, MT.
Read SB 141 here: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/billpdf/SB0141.pdf
by Jasmine Taylor | Feb 4, 2023 | Elections, Housing, LGBTQ+ Issues
Some days it feels like we’re running a satire site here. I sit down to re-cap the Worst of the Worst and don’t know if I should start with the craziest (Lola Sheldon Galloway) or the stupidest (Daniel Emrich). So instead I’ll start with the most self-serving.
MOST SELF-SERVING
Lola and Steven Galloway are millionaire landlords, and they’re shaping new laws to make themselves even richer. This week, Steven introduced legislation (HB 439) that would make it easier for landlords to evict tenants, and invade their privacy. Read about Steven’s obliquely self-serving bill here: https://wtf406.com/2023/01/galloway-attacks-renters-rights/
Now Steven’s receiving help from his friend to further diminish renter’s rights. Senator Steve Fitzpatrick introduced SB 105, a bill that would “prohibit rent control on private properties.” That means landlords like the Galloways can charge insanely high rental prices. Without rent control Montana’s housing crisis will worsen. Folks will either become unhoused, or they’ll be forced to move out of state. We’re already seeing a huge increase of families living in RVs on the side of the road in Bozeman. Bills like these will worsen the housing crisis. Fitzpatrick’s bill benefits the wealthy (ie all the elected Reps in Great Falls) at the expense of the rest of us.
MOST HEARTLESS
Most Heartless is actually a tie this week.
The “Pro-Life” Party was hard at work killing kids again. Steve Gist, Scott Kerns, Steven Galloway, and Lola Galloway all voted against funding for youth suicide prevention. Montana continually leads the nation in suicides. Youth are particularly at risk, and other bills being heard will likely increase the number of suicide attempts by kids in our state. Denying funding for suicide prevention efforts while simultaneously passing bills that will increase youth suidice? That’s some villain shit right there.
Read about why SB99 is going to kill kids here: https://wtf406.com/2023/01/sb-99-likely-to-increase-youth-suicide/
Senator Daniel Emrich managed to be disgusting on another end of the spectrum. Montana is a Right to Die state, meaning Montana’s can choose to die with dignity assisted by compassionate medical care. Emrich just can’t pass up an opportunity to impose his will on our private medical decisions. The GOP is trying to take away our right to die and criminalize doctors who provide this care. Despite his embarrassing lack of scientific understanding (more to come on this) Emrich decided he knows better than the Montana Hospital Association, doctors, patients, and their families. Emrich’s unkind and uninformed comments are featured in this article:
https://dailymontanan.com/2023/02/01/bill-would-outlaw-physician-assisted-death-reversing-montanas-current-practice/?fbclid=IwAR3n5NCzUtcONW2Rv_HvqxSmS0POW-CoKWHY8XaDwKlzMA46gs2-3lQRe44
MOST UNEDUCATED
Which brings us to why Senator Emrich should probably sit down when anything even science-adjacent is discussed. Emrich is trying to ban the teaching of “scientific theory.” No, seriously. The theory of gravity must have hit this breadstick in the head because he clearly lacks even a third-grade level of scientific understanding. Read this somehow-not-a-joke bill here: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/billpdf/LC2215.pdf
MOST ORWELLIAN
Lola Galloway is all over the list this week! Galloway has introduced a bill that would require ALL cell phones in Montana be installed with an ”obscenity” filter. Notably, she provides no definition for “obscenity.” Make no mistake, this is a government surveillance bill. Lola employs a familiar GOP tactic here and is trying to disguise her censorship attempts as an effort to protect children. Her bill asserts that the filter is necessary so kids can’t access obscene materials. Protecting kids from the dark corners of the internet would indeed be a worthy cause- but installing surveillance software on every phone in the state is an insane way to go about it. Further, it’s the responsibility of PARENTS to monitor their child’s internet usage. It sure as hell shouldn’t come in the form of an opt-out piece of government surveillance on every cell phone in the state. Much like the other bullshit “obscenity” legislation we’ve seen this session, the real goal is BIG GOVERNMENT eyes on us and attempts to limit access to material far-right nationalist Christians don’t like. That’s going to be anything LGBTQ+ and anything non-theistic. If Lola actually gave a fuck about kids, she probably would have voted for the suicide-prevention funding mentioned above. Read the bill here: https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB349/id/2668315
GET INVOLVED
The GOP is taking huge steps to invade our private lives, take away our homes, and make themselves rich all at once. Great Falls, this is getting embarrassing. If you disagree with the dystopian future our Great Falls Reps are trying to write into law, then tell them! Find session information, look up bills, and contact your representatives here: https://leg.mt.gov/session/
by Guest Writer | Jan 29, 2023 | Elections, Guest Articles, Housing
When he’s not working diligently to keep his rental tenants in poverty with his hand out at their doors, he’s working in the House to make sure they can join the growing unhoused community in Great Falls. That’s right, Great Falls’ reigning Dairy King and local landlord, Rep. Steven “Mr. LOLA” Galloway, is heading legislation (HB-282) to speed up the eviction process for renters in Montana.
Specifics noted in the bill include:
- Protections for landlords to issue 24 hour notices for property access or to correct rental agreement violations with tenants facing eviction proceedings within 3 days for refusing property access.
- Putting extra stress on our already overloaded courts by significantly shortening the filing due dates and hearing scheduling windows. Meaning, where courts and tenants typically had a cushion of anywhere from 10-20 days before, multiple lines of Sections 70-24 and 70-33, MCA have been amended to an allowance of only 5 days instead.
Interestingly, or maybe better put – strategically, in reference to the 24 hour notices, there are no exceptions for tenants who may be working out of town, be hospitalized, on vacation, or otherwise. In sum, tenants who are working hard, severely ill, or enjoying time off away from home can find themselves in the crosshairs of their landlord’s impatience.
Rep Galloway was quoted by Montana Public Radio as saying this legislation is an attempt at “alleviating the stress on the judicial system that has more pressing issues”, but if that’s truly the case, why shorten their working time? With Rep. Galloway himself identifying that our courts have more pressing issues, these amendments read as a greasy attempt at further overwhelming the courts and floating their eviction actions with little to no pushback.
While some supporters of the bill say this proposed legislation will be used for “worst case scenarios”, anyone with any kind of sense can see that this is the first of many blows to deliberately weaken already feeble tenant’s rights, and Rep. Steven Galloway is more than happy to be the champion of those endeavors.
