Terry Thompson Settles in as Election Administrator as 2024 Elections Take Off

On February 15th, the Cascade County Commissioners announced Terry Thompson as the new election administrator. Three months later, she has settled into the position quite well, despite some concerns about her lack of experience in elections.

Since Terry assumed the role, she has taken part in multiple training sessions. Her prior leadership experience facilitated a smooth transition to the new position.

“You don’t have to have a degree to be an election administrator,” explained Terry. “You have to be a person who can manage processes and have leadership skills, and customer service. It’s communicating with the public. My leadership skills have put me in an ideal position to be able to manage all of the aspects of what it takes to do the job.”

Terry is enjoying her position as election administrator. She was even prepared with a backup plan when a printing issue arrived with the county print shop.

One of the things that bothers Terry the most is the amount of waste generated during an election. For instance, in the recent school election, 32,000 envelopes were stuffed, but only 12,000 votes were returned. This process involves a significant amount of time and money, including the cost of printing envelopes and ballots.

In the current primary election, approximately 40,000 envelopes are being used, and each envelope contains three ballots. This means more postage is required, and there will also be a significant amount of paper waste when the ballots are not returned.

Working within the elections is a time-consuming job. Everyone involved makes a huge personal sacrifice by working plenty of overtime. “Mistakes can happen because you’re just overwhelmed with the workload,” explained Terry. “That’s why having a little bit bigger staff would be very helpful for the size of county that we have. Probably by the end of June or first part of July, I’ll have the staffing figured out what I want to do and then we’ll be posting those positions and getting people hired.”

If you would like more information about the elections please contact Terry Thompson at the election office at 325 2nd Ave north or call (406) 454-6803.