MISSOULA - The Missoula County Elections Office has offered several options to the county Republican Party after races for two precinct chairman were left off the ballot during Tuesday's Primary Election.
Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman said in a letter that mistakes were his sole responsibility. "As you are aware two races were inadvertently omitted from Tuesday’s primary election. The responsibility of this error lies solely on myself."
The GOP has several options including a rerun of those two races, but the ballots would need to be sent to all voters in the county and not just Republicans.
In a letter from Seaman, the Republican Central Committee’s alternative options are either to appoint a replacement to the vacant seat or conduct its own internal election process. Both of those options and how they are administered are solely up to the GOP Committee.
Seaman's letter further states:
"Moving forward, I am making arrangements to institute new preventative measures for both parties’ precinct races to help ensure that no omission occurs again. I intend to establish a procedure to formalize the process for all central committees requesting that Missoula County administers these elections. I will also update the filing system to have uniform precinct names to help ensure that contested races are confirmed. Finally, I intend to send central committees advance sample ballots for the election."
Seaman is requesting the committee let the elections office know by June 24 if they wish Missoula County to coordinate running the omitted races.
