County Commissioners voted unanimously during a special Feb. 15 meeting to offer the newly created election administrator position to Terry Thompson.

Commissioners offered Thompson the job for $69,000.

Commissioners interviewed four candidates for the position during a Feb. 6 meeting and scored the applications and interviews.

Those scores were opened and discussed during their Feb. 15 meeting.

County continues discussion of election issues

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski said that elections are law driven and “it should not be an issue to run an election” if you have a person determined to get the job done and utilize available resources.

She thanked the applicants and said she appreciated the community’s patience with the process.

“I’m excited for our future, I’d like to have things calm down and get to work on a very heavy election year, there’s still a lot to be done,” Grulkowski said. “I think that we’ve made the very best decision that we can.”

Nancy Donovan, one of the candidates interviewed for the position said she thought Thompson was a good choice.

County conducts election administrator interviews, will discuss selection next week

Jane Weber, former county commissioner and vocal critic of the elections office under Sandra Merchant, said she was concerned about the tight timelines for the upcoming elections without having experienced staff in the elections office.

Deb Chibroksi said she thought commissioners made a good choice. She said that if elections staff “are left alone to do their job,” elections would be done properly.

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Thompson is the former director of the Great Falls Association of Realtors and currently serves on the Great Falls Airport Authority Board, as a city appointee to the joint city-county board. She’s the current chair of Electric City Citizens for Public Safety, a political action group that lobbied for the failed city public safety levy.

During her interview, she said she’s been following the situation with county elections and sees that the community is divided, primarily on party lines.

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Thompson said her experience makes her a problem solver, that she’s not political and is the only job candidate who hadn’t worked in the county elections office in some capacity. She said she has the ability to learn the job, including elections laws and county budgeting.

She said the most important aspect of elections was that they were fair, open, secure and transparent.

County posts election office positions

Thompson said she’d invite anyone with questions about elections into the office, if she’s hired, to ask questions and observe the process.

Elections previously fell under the county clerk and recorder, an elected position, in Cascade County.

County appoints Biddick as election administrator

In November 2022, Sandra Merchant defeated Rina Moore by 31 votes for the position after months of comments and a petition by a local group questioning the integrity of local elections, echoing a number of concerns and conspiracy theories nationwide.

Merchant’s first year in office was plagued with continued concerns over election integrity, errors with various elections, lawsuits and public scrutiny from across the political spectrum.

County officials continuing discussion on moving election duties

In December, commissioners voted 2-1 to remove election duties from the clerk’s office and create an elections administrator under their office. They appointed Dev Biddick, an elections employee, as the interim elections administrator.

County Commission votes to strip election duties from clerk and recorder’s office

The candidates were Rina Moore, Lynn DeRoche, Terry Thompson and Nancy Donovan.