Missoula County opposes SB 385: Generally revise election laws, up for second reading on the Senate floor this morning. This bill would allow political parties to dictate the staffing of polling locations, which could lead to an imbalance and possibly create a partisan atmosphere if all staffers at a polling place are clearly from one or another party. Also, because the bill requires election administrators to ask the political parties to fill any vacancies that occur, this bill would also eliminate the deadline for central committees to submit a list of judges 45 days before the election.
Also, the requirement that a chief election judge not preside over more than one precinct would cost counties, and therefore local property taxpayers, more money than is necessary to spend. Missoula County has regularly used one chief judge to oversee a polling location with multiple precincts. Also, this change would require Missoula County to recruit, train and staff additional judges who may not be prepared for the task. We prefer to train chief election judges over multiple cycles to ensure they’re ready and confident in the procedures they need to follow.
In addition to those concerns, there is unclear language on expanding the post-election audit and a requirement to include ballots that were not counted by the machine. Counting damaged ballots in the post-election audit would cause counties to fail the post-election audit, because those ballots are not tabulated by the machine.
Senators,
ReplyDeleteMissoula County opposes SB 385: Generally revise election laws, up for second reading on the Senate floor this morning. This bill would allow political parties to dictate the staffing of polling locations, which could lead to an imbalance and possibly create a partisan atmosphere if all staffers at a polling place are clearly from one or another party. Also, because the bill requires election administrators to ask the political parties to fill any vacancies that occur, this bill would also eliminate the deadline for central committees to submit a list of judges 45 days before the election.
Also, the requirement that a chief election judge not preside over more than one precinct would cost counties, and therefore local property taxpayers, more money than is necessary to spend. Missoula County has regularly used one chief judge to oversee a polling location with multiple precincts. Also, this change would require Missoula County to recruit, train and staff additional judges who may not be prepared for the task. We prefer to train chief election judges over multiple cycles to ensure they’re ready and confident in the procedures they need to follow.
In addition to those concerns, there is unclear language on expanding the post-election audit and a requirement to include ballots that were not counted by the machine. Counting damaged ballots in the post-election audit would cause counties to fail the post-election audit, because those ballots are not tabulated by the machine.
Please oppose SB 385.