GREAT FALLS — The Cascade County Canvass Board has petitioned the Election Administrator to conduct a hand recount of seven precincts due to ballots being found in secrecy envelope boxes that had not been tabulated on election night (November 5, 2024).
The recount began on Thursday, November 21st, and may run into Friday and the weekend.
On Monday, November 25th, canvassers will reconvene in the County Commission Chambers Courthouse Annex to complete the canvass of returned votes.
A total of 117 ballots from the following precincts were found to have been omitted from the count on election night: 20B, 21B, 22B, 23C, 24A, 24B, 25A.
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It should be noted that the outcome of any of the races on the ballot will not be changed by the new tally of votes. The recount board is comprised of Canvass Board members and county employees.
“There were seven precincts that they found ballots in the secrecy envelope still. So one batch had been taken to the cutter and the outside of the secrecy was open, but the ballot was still in it, and the others are still sealed. They were never taken to the cutting machine,” says Cascade County Elections Administrator Terry Thompson. “For whatever reason, somebody dropped those secrecies instead of taking them to the cutting machine, they dropped them in the box for the empty secrecy envelopes.”
One group has criticized Thompson, accusing her of tampering with ballots.
“Contrary to the group that is accusing me of opening ballots, I never opened ballots,” Thompson emphasized. “I took responsibility for making the decision to open the affirmation envelopes, not ever opening any ballot boxes that were sealed the night of the election.”
Thompson assumes responsibility for the small error in tabulation, but says that current protocol, requiring election judges to count through the night non-stop, is the most rapid tallying system, but counter-intuitive to effectiveness.
“For people to think that this can happen overnight, it can't. There needs to be some legislative changes,” she says.
Many of those counting for hours on end are older, due to a severe lack of younger volunteers. This is a demographic Thompson hopes to get involved.
“I want to do an intern program where we can ask the college students to come from the colleges and university that we have in this town to learn about elections and help us,” she says.
Thompson also added she is making decisive changes to her staffing for future election procedures to mitigate the chances a tabulation error such as this does not happen again.
