In advance of a Cascade County commission vote that could strip her of election management duties, Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant has used the election department page on the county website to argue the action would amount to “overthrowing” her 2022 election victory and jeopardize residents’ “right to vote.”
The three-member county commission plans to vote this coming Tuesday, Dec. 12, on a resolution that would remove Merchant’s election management duties and place them in the hands of a county-appointed election administrator.
In response to the proposal, Merchant posted a “notice” in red font on the Cascade County elections department’s website Thursday morning accusing two commissioners of attempting to “nullify the 14,000+ votes” cast for her in the 2022 general election. Merchant’s post encouraged voters to contact the commission and “let them know if you want your vote to count.” In an email to Montana Free Press Friday, Merchant said she posted the notice to inform voters of the “danger that is posed by this move.”
“I believe it is wrong to disenfranchise voters who elected someone to office,” Merchant wrote. “Over 14,000 people voted for me, and two Commissioners have decided they don’t like that decision, so they have chosen to overthrow that election and appoint the person they want to run elections. The votes of the people don’t count in their opinion.”
Commissioner Jim Larson told MTFP Friday that it “certainly is not the case” that he is attempting to nullify the results of the 2022 clerk and recorder race. If the resolution does pass, Larson said Merchant will still hold that office and continue performing her other duties.
“We have every right to do this, and we’re not taking away the vote because this clerk and recorder will still be there doing her other jobs,” Larson said. “She just won’t have elections.”
Merchant said she will continue to serve Cascade County as clerk and recorder if the resolution passes. The county, which has a population of 85,000, includes Great Falls, Montana’s third-largest city.
Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki told MTFP that Merchant’s post did not contain any factually inaccurate information about the resolution and was “not unlawful.” Racki said the county’s elected officials maintain their own sections of the county website with “pretty free rein,” noting the county has never had any issues with that policy in the past.
Merchant, a Republican, defeated 16-year Democratic incumbent Rina Moore last fall by fewer than 40 votes — a margin close enough that a hand recount of the race was conducted at Moore’s request.
State law allows the governing body of a county to appoint an individual other than the clerk and recorder to administer its elections. The resolution to do so in Cascade County, placed on next week’s agenda by Larson and fellow Republican commissioner Joe Briggs, lists a number of inciting incidents for the proposal. Among them are Moore’s “failing” to recuse herself, as a candidate seeking reelection, from overseeing the 2022 election despite public concern and criticism, as well as an 11-month tenure by Merchant that has seen the county “sued multiple times for irregularities and technical errors in the elections she has thus far conducted.”
Briggs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But he informed MTFP last month of his intent to take action on reassigning election duties to a non-elected county administrator. Briggs said he’d broached the idea with fellow commissioners twice before, including during Moore’s tenure as clerk and recorder, out of a belief that Cascade County’s elections should be overseen by a nonpartisan, non-elected individual.
In recent months, critics of Merchant’s handling of elections throughout 2023 have increasingly called for such a move, citing, among other concerns, a lawsuit alleging Merchant mismanaged two special water district elections. Cascade County also missed a state-mandated deadline to certify last month’s municipal elections. Commission Chair Rae Grulkowski, an ally of Merchant’s, told MTFP the situation was due to staffing issues at the commissioners’ office that delayed the post-election canvass — the last step in verifying the results of the election. Briggs has laid responsibility for the missed deadline at Merchant’s feet.
The commission will vote on the resolution reassigning Merchant’s election oversight duties during their meeting Dec. 12, which begins at 9:30 a.m.
LATEST STORIES
What is a Supreme Court clerk, anyway?
PLUS: Who wants a special session?
Republican lawmakers mount three separate pushes for special sessions
A trio of special session requests from Republican lawmakers each touch on election-year issues, but lawmakers have historically had little success calling themselves into a special session.
What Montana’s candidates for governor have to say about renewing Medicaid expansion
We asked Republican, Democratic and Libertarian candidates if they would support reauthorizing the low-income health care program, which has in the past been the subject of vigorous debates in the Capitol — and is up for renewal again next year. Here’s what they had to say.