The May 7 ballot will include the Great Falls Public Schools and the Fort Shaw Irrigation District board elections, Thompson said.

Filing in the GFPS school board election closed March 28.

There’s one school board seat on the ballot that is currently held by Marlee Sunchild, who has filed for reelection.

Rodney Meyers and Tony Rosales have also filed for that seat.

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A lawsuit against Merchant, the county, the Fort Shaw Irrigation District and the West Great Falls Flood Control and Drainage District remains pending in district court.

A jury trial has been scheduled in that case for July.

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Some locals attempted a petition to repeal the county ordinance that stripped election duties from the clerk and recorder’s office.

In December, County Commissioners voted 2-1 to remove election duties from the office currently held by Sandra Merchant and to establish an election administrator under the commission office.

Some locals filed a petition to reverse the December ordinance and restore election duties to the clerk’s office.

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To be effective, that petition must be signed by at least 15 percent of the qualified voters with 60 days of the initial resolution passing, it’s suspended until a special election is called on the question, according to state law.

The resolution was approved on Dec. 12.

They had 90 days to gather signatures to put the ordinance on the ballot but it would remain in effect in the meantime.

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Terry Thompson, who was appointed to the new election administrator position in February, told The Electric that the group submitted 1,543 signatures on their petition.

Of those, 1,242 were accepted, Thompson said.

She said that the petition needed about 7,500 signatures to get on the ballot.

When the county commissioners voted to remove election duties from the clerk’s office, opponents said they would sue the county.

As of April 2, no lawsuit has been filed in relation to that vote.

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A statewide initiative to prohibit the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission from denying the owner of fee patented lands from harvesting deer, elk and black bear on their own property during the statewide general hunting season was approved to gather signatures.

Thompson said that proponents of that petition have until July 19 to collect about 30,000 signatures statewide.

She said there were two signatures filed for that petition in the county elections office as of March 29.