Flathead County Election Department Forms Independent Administration
After historically operating under the Clerk and Recorder Office, the Flathead County Board of Commissioners appointed Paula Buff as the nonpartisan election administrator to run the newly independent department, which is designed to eliminate conflicts of interest and provide greater oversight
By Maggie Dresser
Starting this week, the Flathead County Election Department has become an independent administration after county commissioners last month approved a resolution to separate it from the Clerk and Recorder Office where it has historically operated under.
The Flathead County Board of Commissioners appointed Paula Buff, who has been managing the county’s elections since last year, as the election administrator to run the department.
County commissioners Pam Holmquist and Randy Brodehl approved the resolution during a November meeting. Commissioner Brad Abell was absent.
“Paula is now the department head,” Flathead County Administrator Pete Melnick told the Beacon. “She’ll have her own budget and she’ll do quarterly reports. From the commissioners’ perspective, this modernizes the elections department and provides greater oversight. We’re really pleased with how Paula has been performing these last couple of years and we look forward to continued excellence.”
The change comes after Flathead County Clerk and Recorder Debbie Pierson, who has been elected to her partisan position for the past decade and runs five departments, proposed separating the elections department as the job continues to evolve.
At the November commissioner’s meeting, Pierson outlined the conflicts of interest that is presented by “requiring a partisan candidate to oversee elections in which their name may appear on the ballot.”
“There’s a lot of good reasons that this was moved ahead,” Flathead County Commissioner Randy Brodehl said at the meeting. “I think the primary consideration for me is it takes it out of the authority of the person who could be supervising an election they are also a candidate for. I think it sets itself up for a lack of transparency.”
In addition to transparency, the separation also creates a formal hiring process that requires candidates to meet minimum standards including education, experience and “technological proficiency critical to managing the legal and technical demands of modern elections,” according to Pierson.
By appointing an election administrator, Pierson said it enables long-term planning and retention of institutional knowledge for a role that is “subject to increasing complexity and public scrutiny.” The new process also sets up succession planning while allowing the Clerk and Recorder office to focus on the four other departments that Pierson oversees.
Flathead County joins several other counties that have adopted independent election departments, including Bighorn, Carbon, Cascade, Glacier, Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Teton, and Yellowstone.
“I feel like this is just a step in the right direction for Flathead County,” Pierson said. “I feel like elections have become more and more demanding over the years, so it just makes good sense.”