It didn’t take long. Less than three months after taking office, Merchant’s inability, or unwillingness, to administer elections is already creating chaos in Cascade County. There has been good, comprehensive news coverage in both the Electric and the Daily Montanan of what has been going on.
Obviously, Sandra Merchant has gotten herself into a hot seat. So far her response has been to say the problems at her office are a variety of factors beyond her control. She says the closure of IPS (a mailing company) is responsible. Staff shortages are the problem. Finding a printing company willing to print ballots is the problem. That her refusal to send ballots for the Library levy was a misunderstanding. And on it goes.
What she does not say is that she and her political supporters are election deniers who are fundamentally opposed to mail ballots. They want everyone to vote at a polling place and have ballots counted by hand. She doesn’t mention that her first hire in the Clerk and Recorder’s office is straight out of the election denier crowd here in Cascade County. Nor does she talk about her affiliation with Rae Grulkowski, our newly-elected County Commissioner and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire.
Maybe it doesn’t matter whether the current mess at the Clerk and Recorder’s office is the result of incompetence or Merchant’s belief in election denier mythology. What matters is that people organize to make sure she can’t impose her beliefs on the rest of us by denying free and fair elections.
If you like free and fair elections, brace yourself. Cascade County is in trouble and as a voter, you need to be informed. Sandra Merchant, election denier and now County Clerk & Recorder refuses to do her job. She needs to be replaced and soon! Send an email to the following people today and tell them to “ImmediatelyREMOVE Sandra Merchant as Clerk and Recorder for not fulfilling the duties of her elected office.”
[email protected] – MT Association of Elected Officials Executive Director, Eric Bryson
Ask the folks at the Sun River School District who requested a mail ballot election for their board of trustees. Merchant recently informed them she cannot run their requested mail ballot election. Was Sun River School District late with their request? Heck no, school administrators met required timelines but Merchant sent a letter saying they would need to run a poll election instead. Her excuse? She claimed the recent closing of IPS, the county’s mailing service, prevents her from running a mail ballot election. In her letter to the School District it states she could not find another source to mail ballots.
Sound fishy? It is. In the last year, Merchant and her ilk have publicly derided the mail ballot process, emphasizing their bias for poll elections. So is this Merchant’s backhanded way of eliminating the mail ballot process in Cascade County? You decide.
Here’s some facts you should know:
There are five elections between now and June and possibly two more in the fall – Sun River and Great Falls Public School elections (May), West Great Falls Drainage District (May), Ft Shaw Irrigation election (May), Library levy special election (June). In autumn, the city commission/mayor primary (September) and general election for city commission and mayor election (November).
Over 85% of the county’s voters prefer and REQUEST mail ballots for elections.
Mail ballots are more convenient for voters AND more cost-effective. It takes hundreds of paid people to run a poll election and a handful to run a mail ballot election.
The Elections office must train and oversee these poll workers. Not sure Merchant knows her job, since word has it that her office called the Sun River School District and asked them who their election judges are. Doesn’t Sandra Merchant know it is HER JOB to get the election judges?
The burden for non-county elections is borne by the requesting entity, so a poll election costs the city, library, school districts, water districts, etc. considerably more than a mail ballot election.
The library has been notified that their levy may need to be run in autumn when the city will be running its public safety levy. No doubt both levies will fail if that happens.
Merchant has also claimed that the redistricting process is going to take time away from planning any mail ballot elections. That process does not start until July, so why the hold-up for these four spring elections?
IPS mailing services gave ample notice of their business closure. In very early February, Cascade County Commissioner, Joe Briggs, asked Merchant to research other mailing service so mail ballots could be done this spring. Had Merchant contacted Kalispell which has 50,000+ voters in the county, she might have found a solution. But hey, why look very hard when your objective is to eliminate mail ballot voting?
It’s common knowledge that Merchant does not trust the county’s reliable count machines to tabulate voter ballots. Are Merchant’s gymnastics to eliminate mail ballots just a precursor to hand-counting ballots in the future? Let’s hope not.
Nursing homes, particularly in rural communities, are closing across the state. The residents in these facilities are often forced to move away from family and friends to find a place that will accept them. The problem is Medicaid payments from the state for these facilities are far below what is needed to cover costs. Everyone knows about this problem, and Gianforte proposed a paltry increase while trying to save the rest of the budget surplus to give tax breaks to his rich friends. Problem is it’s too little, too late. Here’s an explanation from Big Sky 55+
First, A Little Math (Don’t Worry, This is Simple)
The current reimbursement rate for Medicaid patients is $208 per patient per day. The current cost of operation for nursing homes is estimated to be at least $279 per patient per day. Bottom line is that the current reimbursement rate is at least $71 a day short of covering expenses. But wait, there’s more! For every $1.00 the state spends for Medicaid expenses, the federal government pays $2.37. Simply put, for every dollar the state “saves” by not funding Medicaid services, it leaves $2.37 on the table. This only makes sense to Republicans.
Gianforte is Supposed to be a Good Businessman!?!?
The last legislature commissioned a study to determine what it would cost to stop the crashing of long term care facilities in Montana. Though the full cost is probably higher depending on the facility, the legislative study recommended a “benchmark” of $279 per day to cover costs. Gianforte’s budget proposed paying 88% of that amount. Last time we checked, any business has to meet expenses to keep its doors open. Doesn’t matter if you cover 88% percent or 95% of your costs, you still go out of business if you can’t cover 100%. But, as we have said before, Republicans don’t understand Economics 101.
Democratic Proposal Passed the House
In response to the obviously inadequate proposal in Gianforte’s budget, Representative Mary Caferro (D-Helena) introduced HB 649, which increased funding for long term care to the benchmark amount. Surprisingly, the bill passed on the House floor and is now on its way to the Senate.
Great Falls Republicans Split on Supporting Full Funding
There are two distinct factions in the Great Falls Republican Party which have been at war with each other for years. One camp is the local Central Committee which is composed of less extreme, corporatist members. The other camp is the tinfoil hat conspiracy crowd which is centered around the local Pachyderm Club. The dominant faction is the Pachyderm Club.
Corporatist Lackey Republicans for HB 649
Conspiracy Crazy Republicans against HB 649
Fred Anderson
Steven Galloway
Ed Buttrey
Scot Kerns
Steve Gist
Lola Sheldon-Galloway,
George Nikolakakos
If the above chart makes you think that the crazy crowd doesn’t run the local Republican Party in Cascade County, we remind you that the crazy Republican office holders in Cascade County include our Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant, County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, and perhaps the weirdest elected official in the state, Randy Pinocci. There has been a lot of news coverage about this split in Cascade County. Here’s just one example.
Hopefully the bill will be well received in the Senate. Montana has a huge budget surplus, and the people in nursing homes are among the most vulnerable in the state. Pushing them out the door is unnecessary and inhumane. Question is, does the Republican Party care?
