Despite Minor Technical Glitches, Whitefish Election Volunteers and Observers Report ‘Smooth Sailing’

Poll workers volunteering at the Whitefish Armory on Tuesday morning reported a busy but efficient start to Election Day as they fielded questions and helped voters look up their precincts from a kiosk stand of iPads, with each tablet programmed with electronic pollbooks containing a list of eligible voters in Flathead County and their voting districts.

“So far it’s been really smooth sailing,” according to poll worker Irene Stephanie Dupont. “We haven’t had any big rushes or long lines.”

But there was one small factor complicating matters for voters trying to cast ballots at the Whitefish Armory, which is one of 11 Flathead County polling places accommodating in-person voting during the general election — they were struggling to bypass the computer-generated CAPTCHA quizzes required to access their information on the e-pollbooks. Although the CAPTCHA program is designed to protect websites against bots, voters using the available tablets on Tuesday encountered images that were often too pixelated or difficult to read.

“How many bicycles? I don’t see any bicycles,” complained one man stooping over the device, while others struggled to distinguish a bus from a train.

According to Dupont, older voters were opting to use the large-format precinct map hanging on the Armory’s wall to sort out confusion about the new legislative districts, while others arrived with their voter confirmation cards in hand. Others still looked up their personal information on the Montana Secretary of State website using their personal devices, allowing them to bypass the CAPTCHA test.

Observing it all was Tim Christensen, one of nearly 200 volunteers fanned out across the Treasure State Tuesday to conduct nonpartisan, citizen-led observations on behalf of the Montana Election Observation Initiative (MTEOI). Through a partnership between the Georgia-based nonprofit Carter Center and the University of Montana’s Mansfield Center, the MTEOI’s mission is to “maintain the transparency and integrity of our elections,” according to MTEOI coordinator and advisor Daniel Bruce, who in the months leading up to the Nov. 5 election helped recruit and train 175 volunteers in 15 counties, including Flathead.

In an email, Bruce said the MTEOI’s efforts are different from other poll-watching campaigns in that it is totally impartial, meant only to ensure “that Montanans are informed about efforts to protect the integrity of our elections.” He explained that research indicates the presence of nonpartisan or independent election observers during critical stages of an election “can improve election administration and bolster public trust in electoral outcomes.”

The 2022 Survey of the Performance of American Elections — a national survey administered to 10,200 registered voters — found, for example, that a majority of American voters (61%) would have more confidence in the integrity and security of their state’s election system if they knew that nonpartisan poll watchers had observed the process.

Working off a checklist of 10 questions, Christensen, a Whitefish resident, said his job was to ensure the election operations ran according to state law, such as opening on time and following the correct guidelines for processing ballots and tallying votes.

MTEOI identified the following counties to engage nonpartisan election observation of election processes: Big Horn; Broadwater; Carbon; Cascade; Custer; Flathead; Gallatin; Glacier; Hill; Lake; Lewis & Clark; Missoula; Ravalli; Rosebud; and Yellowstone.

After the election, the MTEOI will produce a post-election report, according to Bruce.

“Observers will report on how Montana election laws and procedures are followed, representing all voters without interfering in the electoral process,” the MTEOI website states. “Findings from their observations will be compiled to assess the overall quality of elections in Montana.”