This story is adapted from the MT Lowdown, a weekly newsletter digest containing original reporting and analysis published every Friday.
As the Cascade County Commission was deliberating last month over who to appoint as the new local elections overseer for one of the state’s key political swing counties, Montana’s top election official privately weighed in on the conversation. In a Feb. 14 email to all three county commissioners, Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen urged them not to hire former Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore or any member of her past administration.
“Doing so would directly undermine the voters of Cascade County,” Jacobsen wrote in the email, obtained and published this week by the Great Falls news website The Electric.
Jacobsen’s argument aligned with much of the public criticism leveled against the commission late last year as they stripped current Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant of her election administration duties. Merchant, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Moore in the 2022 election, but quickly drew allegations that she was mishandling elections in Cascade County. In response, the commission passed a resolution establishing an appointed election administrator position. Moore was one of four applicants interviewed for the job last month, as was her former election supervisor, Lynn DeRoche.
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The Cascade County Commission voted 2-1 to strip Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant of her election duties, joining a half-dozen other Montana counties who employ non-elected, nonpartisan election administrators.
Commissioners rated Moore’s qualifications high among the candidates based largely on her 16-year tenure as county clerk but ultimately chose to appoint former Great Falls Association of Realtors CEO Terry Thompson to the post. Commissioners Jim Larson and Joe Briggs told The Electric that Jacobsen’s email did not influence their votes, though Larson claimed that was clearly the intent, citing Jacobsen’s use of her state email account, which includes the state seal.
Jacobsen’s office responded to a list of questions from MTFP by email this week, but did not directly address one asking why she had chosen to weigh in. Spokesman Richie Melby wrote that there are “those out there attempting to play political games and create distractions” at a time when Jacobsen is focused on working with Thompson to “run a very successful election.” Melby did not immediately respond to a follow-up asking who specifically that comment referred to. In his initial response to questions, however, he did speak to another allegation raised in recent media coverage: that Merchant and Cascade County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, who opposed relieving Merchant of her election duties, were observed by The Electric entering Jacobsen’s office in the Montana Capitol on March 1.
“Any ‘reporting’ that Ms. Merchant and Ms. Grulkowski (or any of the other elected Cascade County officials) met with the Secretary is completely false and therefore had absolutely nothing to do with the hiring of the new election administrator,” Melby wrote.
Jacobsen announced last fall that she would be running for reelection in 2024 and officially filed her candidacy for a second term in February. She is facing a challenge from Democrat Jesse Mullen.
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