Sandra Merchant

A Cascade County judge has ordered an election redo for parts of a local irrigation district. The irrigation district admitted it made key mistakes during the election in spring 2023.

Last month, Cascade County commissioners capped a tumultuous year of election discord when they hired a new nonpartisan election administrator. But according to new reporting from online publication The Electric, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen emailed commissioners before they made their choice and advised them against hiring two of the four candidates for the job.

Commissioners unanimously selected former Great Falls Association of Realtors CEO Terry Thompson to manage Cascade County’s elections.

The Cascade County Commission has unanimously appointed a new interim elections administrator after stripping the duties from the county’s clerk and recorder in December.

One of Montana’s largest counties is still without someone to lead its elections one week after its previous administrator lost her duties.

The Cascade County Commission voted Tuesday to remove election duties from the clerk and recorders office.

Cascade County commissioners are scheduled to vote on whether to remove election duties from the clerk and recorder’s office. The move to strip the duties from the office comes after a year of lawsuits and allegations of misconduct directed at the current election administrator.

Cascade County commissioners unanimously certified municipal election results Wednesday, more than a week after a state-imposed deadline.

Cascade County commissioners Wednesday will attempt for a second time to certify municipal election results from earlier this month.

A citizen group monitoring the Cascade County elections office says they’re seeing evidence of new ballot irregularities in Great Falls municipal elections.