In a last-ditch effort to provide a secure election for Lincoln County voters, officials made a few decisions this week.

It followed the revelation that the county Election Department, led by Administrator Melanie Howell, included a note with mail-in absentee ballot packages sent out May 8. The note told voters to sign their ballot, which is incorrect, raised issues of revealing a voter’s identity and whether the ballot would be accepted.

The Tuesday, June 2 primary election is just three business days from now.

Howell, in a May 28 email to The Western News, said voters have been instructed to contact the election office to resolve any issues.

Also at issue was the integrity of some election judges following alleged comments made on social media about other candidates seeking election.

“The judge in question made bullying type statements to a candidate is why we’re dealing with this,” District 1 Commissioner Brent Teske said.

District 2 Commissioner Jim Hammons said, “That person needed to be neutral.”

Noel Duram, the District 3 Commissioner, said the commissioners take such matters seriously.

‘We don’t want to disenfranchise people from serving as judges or running for office,” Duram said.

County attorney Marcia Boris recommended to the commission the judge be removed.

Election administrator Melanie Howell has been criticized for the ballot package note mistake as well as other miscues that have occurred since she was hired to run elections in 2023. 

"The note that instructed voters to sign their ballot came from the Montana Secretary of State's Office. When I looked at it, I didn't think anything of it and we printed them and put them in the envelopes," Howell said in a May 18 interview with The Western News. "Some voters understood it (the incorrect note) while others didn’t."

The SOS office has been pretty tight-lipped about the situation, acknowledging that signed ballots must be rejected. According to current information on the Montana Secretary of State’s website at https://votemt.gov/absentee-ballot/, directions for absentee voters instruct them to placed the voted ballot in the secrecy envelope, place it in the return signature envelope, then sign, date and write your birth year in the dedicated space on the return envelope.

Because it is less than one week from election day, voters are instructed to drop off the ballot at the county election office by 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. It is located at 418 Mineral Avenue in Libby.

Howell also said at Wednesday’s commissioners meeting that there had been other comments on social media about her department.

“I understand it,” Howell said. “One of the judges has already recused herself.”

That prompted Duram and Hammons to discuss them.

“I’m not aware of the two others and I’d want to see the comments,” Duram said. “Election judges are held to a higher standard and our voters should be able trust our elections.”

“These comments should have been brought to us ASAP,” Hammons said.

Howell said she emailed all three commissioners about the latest social media comments.

Lincoln County Republican Club President Tony Wickham discussed the possibility of dismissing an election judge and ensuing legal action.

But Teske pointed out that there is a difference between being a county employee and being offered employment.

Boris clarified the situation.

“A contracted election judge is not subject to the rules of the county’s personnel policy as it relates to hiring and termination,” Boris said. 

The commissioners then approved revoking the judge for the primary election.

Teske asked Howell if she’d let the judge in question know and she said she would.

Duram also said that Howell was free to remove any other judges deemed necessary by their actions or words.

“It’s an astounding amount of work to train these judges and none of these ladies should be permanently removed from working as judges in the future,” Howell said.

Howell said she wouldn’t identify the judges who were removed.

“No, I care about all my judges and regardless of their reason, I do not think any of them have done anything with malicious intent,” Howell said.

Teske mentioned a “contentious” race in the county that led to the issue of how election judges were acting. The other factor was the erroneous note about signing the ballot.

The “contentious” race is between Crystal Denton and Travis Sigea. Sigea is the brother of Sierra Gustin, who works in the Election Department under Howell.

Denton was a former county employee who worked under current Clerk and Recorder Corinna Brown. Brown chose not to seek re-election.

When the ballot signing snafu surfaced, Denton used her campaign Facebook page to alert voters to not sign their absentee ballots.

Howell said she has shared on the county Election Department Facebook page how voters should sign and list their birth date on the affirmation envelope. Those posts appeared between May 12 and May 15.

Then, on May 20, the county posted a notice on its website about the mistake, told them to sign and date the envelope and return it.  

May 22, the department posted another note about dropping off absentee ballots. It said about 25% of absentee ballots were returned to the election office.

The drop box locations included the Eureka Law Enforcement Center, Libby Election Office, Libby Sheriff’s Office and the Troy Police Department lobby.

When asked if signage was posted at the drop boxes to inform voters if they have incorrectly signed their ballot what they should do to get a new ballot, Howell said signs were posted.

Howell also identified other efforts to inform voters who mistakenly signed their ballot.

“We have a notice that we place in the paper of record (Kootenai Valley Record) and in the Tobacco Valley News up in Eureka, we posted on our website, on the bulletin boards and on our Facebook page,” Howell said in the May 28 email.

Due to new laws approved by the Montana legislature and Gov. Greg Gianforte, voters are required to sign and provide their birth date on the return envelope for their ballot.

Proponents of the new measures argued it was necessary for election integrity and to prevent voter fraud.