Montana’s election administrators are urging citizens to contact legislators and ask them to approve conducting the special election to replace Rep. Ryan Zinke by mail. Zinke has been tapped by President Donald Trump to head the federal Department of Interior. If he is confirmed, a special election will need to help to fill the vacancy created in Montana’s U. S. House seat.
Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Bonnie Ramey said she strongly backs the idea of holding that election by mail. “I definitely support this legislation,” she said. “The cost will be so much less and history has proven that the voter turnout is greater in an off-year election if conducted by mail.”
The Montana Clerk and Recorder’s Association says the November 8, 2016 general election was the most expensive statewide election on record at over three million dollars. They cited many factors, including unprecedented voter turnout and the reprinting of ballots due to Libertarian candidate Mike Fellow’s untimely death. Noting that no budget was set aside to fund the unanticipated election, and pointing out that elections are funded at the county level by county taxpayers, election administrators said holding a mail election will save counties upwards of sixty percent.
“This equates to over a half-million dollars of saving,” said the association. Counties will still have the option of running their portion of the election at polling places, they added. Roughly half of election costs are personnel-related, and not having to staff polling places will result in substantial savings, they said.
Besides saving money, a mail election will reduce service cuts to fund the election, said the election experts. A polling place election could run into availability problems, they noted.
“Under normal circumstances, election administrators have two years to plan for a federal election and arrange for accessible polling places. This special election will only allow for three months of planning. Many of the polling places available under ordinary circumstances will likely not be available for a short-notice election,” said the association.
The election administrators maintain that a mail ballot election is extremely secure, pointing to successful local and school elections done by mail for many years. State lawmakers will be deciding whether to allow the special election to be conducted by mail, so the election officials are urging voters to send a message to Helena encouraging mail ballots.
