Page 8 - Flathead Beacon // 8.6.14

8 | AUGUST 6, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM Secretary of State Speaks on
Facts
FIGURES
Numbers in the news
4%
The amount by which the U.S. economy grew in the second quarter – its strongest showing since the third quarter of 2013.
6.2%
The U.S. unemployment rate in July, up from 6.1% a month prior.
294
million
Board feet of lumber produced in Montana in the first half of 2014
40%
Increase of lumber production so far this year compared to 2009
23
Acres burned in the Hay Creek Complex near Polebridge as of Aug. 4.
Upcoming Elections and Referenda
McCulloch meets with members of Flathead Area Young Professionals
By XAVIER FLORY of the Beacon
WHITEFISH – Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch spoke about the importance of voting and retain- ing Election Day voter registration dur- ing a lunch with Flathead Area Young Professionals (FAYP) last week.
“My job is to make sure that everyone who is eligible to vote, is able to vote,” the secretary of state said, before explaining several of the initiatives that she’s started and worked on to ensure this.
One project is the My Voter Page, a web- site that allows voters to check whether they are registered, gives them directions to their polling place and lets them see a sample ballot so they know what to expect.
“It makes it virtually impossible for you not to vote,” McCulloch said.
Yet she acknowledged that engaged vot- ers are more likely to use the site in the first place. In addition to the My Voter Page, the office of the secretary sends out a voter information pamphlet to every household that has at least one eligible voter.
Another election issue she focused on was legislative referenda that are on the ballot in November. One referendum involves Election Day voter registration. LR-126 proposes to end same-day registra- tion and close registration at 5 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day.
McCulloch said she is deeply opposed to the referendum.
“More than 2,600 people in Flathead County have used Election Day voter reg- istration to cast a ballot, and it’s our civic duty to ensure the door stays open for future voters,” she said.
According to McCulloch, there is no good reason to disallow Election Day vot- ing registration, and she refuted the argu- ment that late registers are less informed than other voters.
Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch, center, laughs during a lunch meeting in Whitefish.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
The proposed legislation “effectively denies people the right to vote,” she said.
She went on to clarify that it is not just students who register late.
“Many of these people have just moved to a different part of the state and register- ing to vote is the last thing on their mind until Election Day. It’s families,” she said.
The other referendum, The Montana State Auditor Renaming Amendment, C-45, proposes to rename the State Auditor office to the “Commissioner of Securities and Insurance.”
“There isn’t any money in it, but it would be good because the state audi- tor doesn’t actually audit anything,” McCulloch said.
Montana’s first female secretary of state has a long history of civic engage- ment, having served two terms as the Montana superintendent of public instruc- tion. She described her first voting experi- ence as a formative moment.
As a high school senior, “I was alone in the booth, with the curtains around me, and it was like a punch to the stomach. ‘Oh my gosh!’ I thought, ‘I have the opportu- nity to change the world with my vote,’”
she said.
That first voting experience has led her
to participate in “absolutely every” vote since then, and she is convinced that get- ting people to vote when they are young is one of the keys to ensuring a life of civic engagement.
One way to get more youths to vote would be to allow them to register to vote online, which would also make life eas- ier on the registration officials who often struggle to read the varied handwriting on the registration forms.
As for actually voting online, “that’s down the pipeline,” according to McCulloch.
Although she calls the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts in campaigns, a “bad decision by the Supreme Court,” McCulloch retains her belief in the ability of ordinary citizens to shape the state and the nation through their votes.
“You shouldn’t get the opportunity to complain about how bad things are if you don’t vote,” she said.
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