Let's be smart with our money this election

Editor,

County taxpayers pay all the costs associated with holding elections in our counties. This last election was especially expensive for all of us because ballots needed reprinting due to the unfortunate death of the Libertarian candidate.

The upcoming election for replacing Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in the House of Representatives is in the same budget cycle as the last. It’s a double-whammy to us taxpayers.

County election administrators across all of Montana have a money-saving solution. Mail in ballots. Absentee ballots are done every election and there is no fraud, there simply isn’t.

The bill to do this, Senate Bill 305, is currently in the House Judiciary Committee and a few Republicans are trying to kill it. Keep in mind this bill’s two sponsors are Republican and the Republican Senate passed this bill.

Most Republican senators voted for this bill. County commissioners have written letters and testified in support of this bill. Election administrators support this bill and, as an election official in Emigrant, I fully support this bill.

At our local level, you and me and our neighbor, this bill saves us money. Any legislator claiming fiscal responsibility should support this bill. This is a smart bill written by moderate Republicans.

Please contact our legislators asking them to support SB 305, especially members of the House Judiciary Committee. Let’s be smart with our tax money.

Lee Grindinger

Park County