Election process by the book

By Roberta Stauffer, Opinion Page Editor - 10/10/2008

How can the clerk and recorder preside over the election and also be on the ballot?

That question first surfaced in our online comments before the June primary, and now it's back. Clerk and Recorder Mary McMahon should step aside, they say, since she's also a chief executive candidate. "It's a clear conflict," reads one comment. "I smell recount no matter what the outcome," says another.

The short answer to these comments is that it's McMahon's job to oversee county elections, and Butte-Silver Bow voters entrusted her with the job by electing her to do so.

And since the vast majority of clerk and recorder/election administrator posts throughout Montana are elective offices, these individuals are on ballots all the time, while still overseeing elections.

"It's not an unusual situation," said Janice Doggett, chief legal counsel for the Montana Secretary of State's office. "It happens all over the state." Only four Montana counties have appointed election administrators who are separate from the elected clerk and recorder: Yellowstone, Sheridan, Lake and Carbon. In Anaconda-Deer Lodge and Petroleum counties, the clerk and recorder is an appointed position, but in all the other counties, these elected officials oversee elections and often appear on the ballots themselves.

But it's not as if they're off in a room alone counting ballots as they please. The voting process requires many hands and involves extensive oversight, as spelled out by state law.

"There are lots of procedures that are built in to protect the integrity of the election," Doggett said. "We have issued security directives for all steps of the election process." In her six years at the secretary of state's office, Doggett said she's never fielded a complaint about an election administrator acting inappropriately. "Montana people make good judgments about who they elect to these positions," she said.

Legally, McMahon could even take a hands-on role in running the tabulation machines on Election Day, but she has delegated that job to bi-partisan teams.

Republican Jeff Amerman, who is also the county's finance and budget director, will be teamed up with his assistant budget director Steve Descharme, a Democrat, to operate one of the courthouse tabulation machines. The other courthouse tabulator will be staffed by Dave Stordahl, a Republican, and Michelle Shea, a Democrat.

The precinct counters at the Civic Center will be run by Linda Sajor-Joyce, the county's director of management information systems, and her staff, Chad Tipton and Alyson Harvey-Williams, assisted by election judges.

Also, McMahon said the precinct counters have been calibrated and tested by Copier Doctors, a Butte business working under contract to the manufacturer, Election Systems and Software, Inc., and the county will have on-site support from ESS technicians from Nov. 3-5.

In addition, two county commissioners also volunteer each election to oversee the process, and a bi-partisan canvass board thoroughly reviews the results once tabulation is complete.

So rest assured, the county's election process is in good hands — many good hands.