by Ken Toole | Aug 25, 2024 | Elections
Rea Grulkowski announced her intention to file as a write-in candidate for Cascade County Commission at The Pachyderm Club meeting held on August 22. Back in June she lost her Republican primary race to Eric Hinebaugh by a wide margin. It seems she is unwilling to accept the primary results. Instead she is opting for organizing a write-in campaign for a seat on the County Commission.
No one should be surprised Grulkowski won’t accept the fact that she lost an election. She is a core activist in the local election denier crowd. She was also the major driver in the controversy which engulfed the Clerk and Recorder’s office after election denier Sandra Merchant took over in the last election. Ultimately, the full County Commission removed the election duties from Merchant’s control over the strenuous and often unethical objections raised by Grulkowski.
As of Friday, August 23, she had not filed a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate with the Election Office as required by state law. She has until 5:00 September 3rd.
Write-in campaigns are rarely successful. They require strong organization and an aggressive education campaign. Most serious write-in campaigns have stickers printed to make sure the candidate’s name is spelled correctly on the ballot. With a name like Rea Grulkowski supporters who want to vote for her could easily misspell her name and have their vote thrown out.
The Secretary of State’s office has a rule on the use of stickers for write-ins. It advises candidates to consult with their local election administrator to assure the stickers can be used in the equipment local election offices use.
See Jasmine Taylor’s Tik Tok on this topic.
https://www.tiktok.com/@montana_jasmine/video/7406314192745319726?lang=en&q=jasmine%20taylor&t=1724452544645
by Jasmine Taylor | Nov 29, 2023 | Elections
After multiple embarrassing blunders and missteps, the Cascade County Commission today approved the canvas of the Great Falls Municipal Election. Widespread media coverage shows the depth and breadth of ineptitude displayed by Commissioner Rae Grulkowski and Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant. There’s been a lot to keep up with, and if you, like the average GF resident, preferred to spend your holiday eating turkey instead of monitoring the minutiae of dysfunctional local government, you may have missed some news. Don’t worry, dear reader. We’ve done the work for you and rounded up the funniest and most informative articles highlighting Sandra Merchant’s No Good Very Bad Week.
Here are a few of our favorite highlights from Merchant’s cirque de failure.
“Jasmine Taylor, a former Democratic candidate for the legislature, said Grulkowski tried to circumvent commissioners Briggs and Larson, who refused to participate in an improperly noticed meeting, by asking other elected officials to hold the meeting.
“And that didn’t work out for you, and thank God it did not,” Taylor said. “Because can you imagine if we had other elected officials up there with a farce of a canvass that you held? You cannot complain about your co-workers not coming to you when you go behind the scenes and behind their back and try to circumvent normal public processes in Cascade County.”
Read the full story here: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/11/28/cascade-county-commission-votes-to-restructure-chairperson-selection-process/?fbclid=IwAR16fDYmkoPCdnMbePjVacZY7Gmky8PBLdTpBv-JnXusljfkdPnyP4kyU-w
“Briggs said he moved to adjourn last Wednesday’s meeting after he noticed several discrepancies in the post-election reports for the outlying communities of Cascade and Belt. He noted that the canvass was a significant departure from past elections, with commissioners not receiving materials prior to the meeting and not being presented with the information needed to compare the number of ballots processed by vote-tabulating machines with the number of ballots returned by voters to the elections office.
Merchant did not respond to multiple messages requesting comment.”
Read the full story here: https://montanafreepress.org/2023/11/28/cascade-county-misses-election-canvass-deadline/
“Looking at (the Secretary of State’s) report and comparing it to the tabulator machine results for the town of Belt and the town of Cascade – the numbers of ballots received did not match,” explained Commissioner Rae Grulkowski. “Commissioner Briggs made a motion to table until the Secretary of State’s Office could be reached to conclude why those numbers were different.”
Read the full story here: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3242654584429-when-will-it-count-cascade-county-s-nov-7-election-results-still-in-limbo?_f=app_share&s=a3&share_destination_id=MjIyODA3MDU2LTE3MDA5NDM2NTI3NDc%3D&pd=0F4sIC3l&hl=en_US&send_time=1700943652&actBtn=null&trans_data=%7B%22platform%22%3A1%2C%22cv%22%3A%2223.46.1%22%2C%22languages%22%3A%22en%22%7D&fbclid=IwAR17LY483tJBbRE5o6VP7ERDBo4UFd_wQeSdfEH41xy4eWz4pTsmXkzt2XU
“Jane Weber, former Cascade County Commissioner and co-founder of the Election Protection Committee, a resident-organized watchdog group, noted the canvass diverged from the usual process even before it started. Weber said in her written testimony never in her 10 years on the commission had she witnessed a canvass where commissioners didn’t get necessary reports from the Clerk and Recorder prior to the meeting. “This process today was a sham designed to outlast the public who came to make comment. I’m embarrassed and deeply troubled for any future elections in this county chamber,” Weber said.”
Read the full story here: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/11/24/cascade-county-commission-tables-election-canvass-amidst-ballot-tally-confusion/?fbclid=IwAR3fGBPw6qfOgDA8tXzfD2zslcSzB9kUbr0GICDoKeBGdcvrskyQGeNxWVM
We’ll have more on the fantastic failures of Merchant and Grulkowski later this week. For now, enjoy this cartoon, as a treat.
