The Cascade County canvass board met Nov. 22 to certify the results of the Nov. 7 general election.

The canvass board reviews the election tabulations and certifies the results.

Earlier this year, the board was asked not to certify special district elections from May 2 due to issues with the election process and the Great Falls Public Schools board expressed concern with the election when they reviewed and certified their results.

The county is still facing three lawsuits pertaining to elections this year, two from special district elections in May and one for the library levy election in June.

During the May canvass, Carey Ann Haight, chief deputy county attorney for the civil division, said that the canvass board has limited jurisdiction and can’t determine the legality of elections.

For the Nov. 22 canvass, the board reviewed results for the Great Falls municipal election, which included commissioners, mayor, municipal judges, neighborhood councils and the public safety levy and bond; and council elections for Belt and Cascade.

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As of 5:15 p.m. Nov. 22, the canvass board was still reviewing and tallying numbers for the Great Falls municipal election. They still had to review the Belt and Cascade town council elections.

This story will be updated.

Typically, The Electric has not covered the canvass as it’s a formality and there were rarely questions of the election process or results. The public also rarely attended.

No members of the public attended the canvass in November 2019 or November 2021, according to county minutes. Nothing was posted on the county website for a canvass for the November 2020 election.

In 2022, the canvass was held on Dec. 5 for a Nov. 8 election, according to the minutes. Several members of the public attended, including several who had signed a petition last year asking County Commissioners eliminate mail ballots.

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In May 2023, several people attended the canvass and several asked that Commissioner Rae Grulkowski recuse herself from the canvass due to her involvement with the election office and others asked commissioners not to certify the results due to concerns over errors with the May 2 election.

In June 2023, several people attended the canvass but no members of the public spoke, according to the meeting minutes.

The November 2023 canvass has become a greater public interest than in years past and there were complications in scheduling the meeting.

State law requires that the county hold a canvass within 14 days after each election, at a time determined by the board.

The law does not specify calendar days or business days. If interpreted to mean calendar days, the deadline would have been Nov. 21, according to several sources.

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There’s been some discussion over consequences to missing that deadline, but county officials have said in this round that they were more concerned with the public notice rules.

According to county minutes, the county held the canvass on Dec. 5 for the Nov. 8 election, which would have exceeded the 14-day rule by calendar days and business days. But, that election included a recount on Nov. 28-29. The county’s agenda center shows a canvass meeting on Nov. 18 that year, but the minutes are all dated Dec. 8.

No one raised concern about that publicly and there were no consequences or changes to the Nov. 8, 2022 election, during which Sandra Merchant defeated Rina Moore for the clerk and recorder position by 31 votes, which also required a recount.

There’s also been some discussion about the 48-hour requirement, which is widely adhered to by local governments and was addressed in a 1998 Montana Attorney General opinion.

“Forty-eight hours is generally considered sufficient to notify the public of contemplated action…The amount of notice given should increase with the relative significance of the decision to be made,” according to the 1998 AG decision.

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State law also specifically states that “two days posted public notice” is required for county commissioners to meet at a time or place that differs from their normal and adopted by resolution meeting time and place.

For this canvass, the county website notification sent an alert at 4:38 p.m. Nov. 17 that the election canvass with commissioners had been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Nov. 20.

At 12:03 p.m. Nov. 20, The Electric emailed to ask Sandra Merchant whether that meeting was still on since it didn’t meet the 48-hour notice requirement, as well as follow up on election related questions from a Nov. 10 email that had gone unanswered. The Electric has not yet received a response.

At 1:29 p.m. Nov. 20, The Electric emailed commissioners to ask about whether the meeting was on due to the lack of 48-hours notice, and whether an agenda and associated documents for the meeting would be publicly available.

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Commissioner Jim Larson responded at 1:56 p.m. to say the meeting was canceled since it wasn’t noticed correctly.

At 2:05 p.m. Nov. 20, the county website notification system sent an alert that the canvass had been moved to Nov. 22 at 3:30 p.m.

Larson told The Electric on Nov. 21 that Commissioner Joe Briggs had immediately responded by email on Nov. 17 saying the meeting wasn’t scheduled with 48-hours notice and that he would not be attending what constituted an illegal meeting.

Merchant’s office has said that they tried to schedule the meeting on Nov. 17, but no one was in the commission office when they tried.

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Larson said he was out for an event at Malmstrom Air Force Base, but returned when he heard about issues scheduling the canvass. The commission clerk had stepped out briefly and her assistant was home taking care of a sick child that day, Larson said.

Larson said that on Monday there was conversation in the county over whether the meeting violated the 48-hour notice rule. The county attorneys said the meeting shouldn’t be held without 48-hours notice so Larson said he also wouldn’t attend.

“She always waits till the last minute,” Larson said of Merchant’s office trying to schedule the canvass on a Friday if the deadline was Tuesday to hold the canvass since weekends don’t count in the 48-hour notice rule. “That’s fine if nothing goes wrong, but that’s not how it went. If you’re going to go to the last minute and something goes wrong, there’s no time to fix it.”

The Electric asked on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 if an agenda for the meeting or associated documents would be posted.

On Nov. 21, Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, who currently serves as commission chairman, responded that “you’ll notice that in prior years, there were no agendas, nor packet materials posted in the county agenda center. If you listen to pre-2023 canvass meeting recordings, you will also hear these meetings had no formality to them and no motions taken. The written minutes reflect this as well.”

The Electric also couldn’t find agendas for those meetings, but for the May and June election canvasses, for which Grulkowski served as chair, she asked staff for agendas for those meetings, according to county sources. Those agendas were posted on the county website and the board made formal motions and votes.

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In some other media reports, Grulkowski blamed miscommunication on an office staffer for the scheduling errors.

“And, if our commission office is not functioning properly, the rest of the county suffers for it, and we’re seeing it now,” Grulkowski told Montana Public Radio.

Earlier this month, Larson and Briggs voted to approve on first reading an ordinance to change the selection process for the commission chairman.

The chair does not have any authority or powers beyond that of the other commissioners.

Briggs said the presiding officer runs meetings and has to exhibit leadership.

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He said Grulkowski serving as chair was by nature of the current ordinance and “she does not have the experience of running the meetings and the leadership experience.”

Briggs said that “has shown in her ability to manage the commission. We are not getting things done in a timely fashion. We have a problem right now.”

The proposed ordinance gives commissioners flexibility to choose chair, Briggs and Larson said.

In response to Briggs, she said, “I don’t know what I haven’t done in a timely fashion.”

She said she took it as an insult regarding him saying she lacked leadership experience.

Commissioners are set to vote again on the proposed ordinance during their Nov. 28 meeting. If approved, the change wouldn’t go into effect for another 30 days.