Cascade County is planning for the post-election audit and canvass for the June 4 primary.

The County Commission will be appointing eight people to serve on the audit committee, which will review random samples set by the Montana Secretary of State’s office on June 12 as required by state law.

The committee can be comprised of county employees and residents.

Commissioners are scheduled to select the eight audit committee members during their June 11 meeting.

Results: Primary election 2024

Those interested in serving on the committee need to be county residents and registered voters and email elections@cascadecountymt.gov or call Terry Thompson, county election administrator at 406-454-6803 by 5 p.m. June 10.

State law requires that the audit committee have at least three people, but does not specify a maximum number.

The doesn’t include details on who can serve on the audit committee but specifies who may not be on the committee: people who served as an election judge in the election being audited; people employed by the vendor who supplied the vote counting machine subject to the audit; or people who performed maintenance on those vote counting machines.

During the June 5 commission work session, Thompson asked commissioners for some clarity on the audit committee membership so she could solicit applications.

She said that commissioners had said they wanted members to be registered voters and county residents.

Thompson said commissioners had previously indicated they wanted four employees and two members of the public on the committee. She said that was in her notes from a previous meeting with commissioners.

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski said she wanted to know if county employees on the committee would be paid for their time or they’d go off the clock as volunteers.

Carey Ann Haight, chief of the county attorney office’s civil division said county employees would be paid their normal rate for serving on the committee during work hours.

Thompson said there’s a meeting with the Montana Secretary of State’s office on June 11 regarding the post-election audit and the canvass procedures.

The canvass has to be completed by June 18 under state law, Thompson said, so her office wanted to do the canvass on June 13 or  June 14 to allow extra time in case there were any issues.

“We don’t’ have time to space, we need to make some decisions,” Thompson told commissioners during their June 5 work session.

Commissioners will also choose two members of the canvass board during their June 11 meeting.

In the past, the canvass board has typically been county commissioners, except when one was on the ballot, they’d be replaced by another county official.

Commissioner Joe Briggs will be out of town for the canvass on June 13 and Grulkowski was on the ballot so she can’t participate in the canvass.

Commissioners discussed choosing from Gerry Boland, public administrator; Sheriff Jesse Slaughter; or Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant.

Haight said that Merchant was on the ballot so shouldn’t be on the canvass board.

Merchant had been on the ballot as a precinct captain, but said she had moved and no longer qualified to serve in that precinct but had missed the deadline to have her name removed from the ballot.