In a 6+ hour session, the County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 to strip Sandra Merchant of the title of Elections Administrator. After approving several contracts and a board appointment, the Board of Commissioners moved on to the discussion of Resolution 23-62: “A Resolution in the Matter of Removing Election Administration Duties from the Office of the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder/Auditor and Appointing an Election Administrator for Cascade County.” put forward by Commissioner Joe Briggs.
What followed was a very passionate display of our system at work. A nearly equally divided room spent much of the day making cases for and against the resolution. It was punctuated with stories of people’s sacrifice for our way of life and the ability to debate these issues, an immigrant who left an oppressive country for our country, and pleas that passing or not passing the resolution.
There were many questions about the legality of the resolution and the timeline for implementation, and likely, the coming days and weeks will bring more to light on this. A few people questioned the Board of Commissioners having too much power and control without electoral oversight. Additionally, the cost of another staff member was brought up as a concern, as both County and City budgets are of great concern.
Even Joe Briggs admitted in his final remarks before voting: “I do not do this lightly because, quite frankly, I agree with a great deal of what the opposition has said. However, we have a problem that I believe has to be fixed and has to be fixed in the near-term.”
State representatives and senators spoke, as did some of the leading people in both major parties. Grandmothers, and priests, Farmers, and service workers. Generally, people were well-mannered and civil, with only an occasional call to please hold applause. Ultimately, the vote went pretty much as many had expected. Larson and Briggs voted to separate the Clerk and Recorder and the Election Administrator, leaving Chair Rae Grulkowski the only dissenter.
