Jim Elliott Argues for Trust in Election Officials and Voters

Jim Elliott Argues for Trust in Election Officials and Voters

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Former Montana Lawmaker Urges Renewed Trust in Election Workers, Drawing on 1964 Memory

In a column for the Ranger Review, former Montana legislator Jim Elliott argues that Americans should restore their confidence in election administrators and poll workers, recalling his first vote in San Francisco in 1964 and his quarter-century in Montana politics to assert that the officials running elections remain impartial and worthy of public trust.

Elliott, who served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as both a state representative and state senator and now lives on a ranch in Trout Creek, writes that the false claims of ballot manipulation surrounding the 2020 election turned election officials into what he calls “the most distrusted people in America.” Now, having cast his ballot in his “umpteenth” election, he writes that he hopes those days are ending.

A First Vote in a San Francisco Garage

Elliott writes that he was living in San Francisco during the 1964 election, which marked both his first time voting and his first time serving as an election judge. He writes that it made an enormous impression on him, and he remembered how proud he was not just of America, but of all the people who voted at his assigned precinct and all the people who were his fellow poll workers. The polling place was located in a garage under one house of a solid block of older three-story buildings, a small two-car space that the owner had cleaned up and made ready for business. The neighborhood was somewhat poor and racially mixed, mostly Black, White, and Asian.

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The poll workers elected among themselves who would perform each task at the voting place, and Elliott writes that he was elected to the top position, though he often wondered whether it was because he was young and white. He will never know, he writes, but he was then, and remains now, grateful to his fellow poll workers for their trust. That trust gave him the honor and privilege of delivering the tallied ballots to San Francisco’s City Hall, a building with a big dome about the size of Montana’s Capitol building.

He departed the polling place at roughly 9 at night, the official papers tucked beneath his arm, and caught a city bus to City Hall, which felt oddly vacant and hushed, almost churchlike, before handing them to the appropriate office. He recalls feeling very proud, very much a part of the process of democracy, and very responsible. He also remembers how carefully the poll workers did the initial tally of the ballots in the small garage, how well they got along, and how proud they all seemed to be in exercising their responsibility. He writes that this experience has colored his lifelong trust and confidence in the American voting system.

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Community Voting at a Trout Creek School

In Trout Creek, Elliott writes, he almost always voted in person at the school because it seemed so much like a community event. Voters all knew each other and visited as they stood in line. He names Shirley McLinden as the first poll worker who would make a mark next to voters’ names and hand them over to Linda Kiester, who would give them their ballots.

Elliott writes that the voting process changed over the years, and when Montana first required voters to show picture identification, he remembers laughing when Shirley said, “Hi Jim, could I please see your ID?” He also recalls that a Clerk and Recorder originally opposed mail-in ballots but a couple of years later became a supporter of them. During all these changes, he writes, he never questioned the integrity of the people running the elections, even when they belonged to the opposite party.

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Impartiality in Public Service

Drawing on his 25 or so years in Montana politics, sixteen of them in the Legislature, Elliott writes that he has worked with many elections officials and trusted all of them to follow the laws impartially. He appreciates the work they all do. Although he admits that many people suspect public employees bring political leanings into their workday decisions, he writes that he has found that to be “very, very, rare—non-existent, even.”

“So now, having cast my ballot in my umpteenth election, I want to thank all the election administrators, all the poll workers and watchers, and not least, all the voters who safeguard our American democracy. My hat is off to you,” Elliott writes.

Elliott’s Montana Viewpoint column has appeared in weekly and online newspapers across Montana for over 25 years. In this piece, he extends his gratitude beyond Montana to the election workers and voters nationwide who safeguard the democratic process.

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