During every election cycle, the Cascade County Clerk & Recorder’s office conducts training for the election judges, which started Monday, March 9th and will be held twice daily through the 12th.
Polling locations such as the one at the Montana ExpoPark are staffed by these election judges, who help with voter registration, handing out ballots, and answering questions.
Since a majority of voters in Cascade County are registered absentee, only about 18% of registered voters will be going to the polls.
Rina Fontana Moore, Election Administrator for the Cascade County Clerk & Recorder’s Office, says most people think these men and women are just volunteers but that is not the case: “All these folks are paid employees of the Elections department, both to be here for training and also for the elections.”
Moore also said, “We couldn’t do it without them! We’re going to be training a couple hundred of them over the next couple of days.“
There will be additional training sessions on Wednesday, with one class from 9 am to 11 pm, and another from 1pm to 3 pm; and on Thursday for rural poll judges, from 9 to noon.
Moore says the rural poll judges class is usually a little longer because the rural Judges typically have to do more set up and tear down for their polling locations.
If you would like more information on becoming an Election Judge, you can contact the Cascade County Elections office at 406-454-6803.
