By Evelyn Pyburn

Yellowstone County Commissioners are taking a hard look at moving the county’s Election Department, in its entirety, to Metra Park.

With the Election’s Department Director, Ginger Aldrich, concerned about not having enough space for the Department to perform its functions, especially after what was experienced in the November general election, County Commissioner Mike Waters took on the challenge of delving into the problem to come up with a solution. At Wednesday’s discussion meeting county officials reviewed the options, challenges and recommendations.

Waters and Aldrich’s top recommendation is to do some renovations of Cedar Hall at MetraPark and make it the one-stop location for most aspects of conducting elections. While the move will not provide all of the space that Aldrich projected as needed it does come close and offers many benefits.

Such as: The location of MetraPark is well known to everybody and many people are already used to going there to vote. The location has ample parking and plenty of space to accommodate dropping off ballots. And perhaps most beneficial is that ballots remain in one location which generates more public confidence in the integrity of elections.

Other options that were scrutinized included splitting operations between the new administration building, which is in the process of being refurbished for county departments, and to continue to lease space from Wells Fargo, which is a solution that has been used in the last two years. Waters said he was anxious to end the cost of that lease.

Another suggestion was to continue with the plan to have the main “front facing” Election office in the County Administration Building (CAB), the former Miller Building, and perform some of the other functions in the Cedar Hall location. Aldrich and some of those working for the department commented that it was one thing to have to walk back and forth between the Election’s office and the Wells Fargo Building (often as many as five times a day) and quite another to have to drive back and forth from the CAB and MetraPark. It also increases concerns about security and election integrity.

Aldrich also announced out that the City of Billings offered first floor space in their new office building (the Stillwater Building) at a “very generous rate.” While the distance between the Stillwater Building and the CAB is greater than that of their current office and Wells Fargo, it would still be doable, and the great entry way into the Stillwater Building would accommodate the long lines that often occur for Elections.

Kevan Bryan, Director, Office of Management Budget at Yellowstone County, expressed concerns about the fact that the Cedar Hall location will still not meet all of the space that Aldrich, initially, estimated as needed.

Waters’ provided a statement regarding the positive aspects that the Cedar Hall option provides:

“The strength of this option is based on the fact that it can be used to maintain the front-facing office and the operational side in one place. This is a significant advantage and the Elections Department is willing to configure a smaller space specifically to ensure both registration and ballot processing stay together. Management of election judges and registration in two areas is challenging when they are one block apart. Separating them by more than a walkable space would not allow effective oversight or management of both registration and ballot processing.

The ground level space provides positive aspects for:

— Accessibility of the public including disabled and elderly voters

— Movement of mail, ballots, and other bulky items such as polling place material drop off by county staff and election judges

–Negates the need for adequate elevator space / a freight elevator

Rejected ballots and other materials flow between the registration office and the operations side. Unifying these processes ensures:

— Temporary election judges work under direct supervision from permanent staff

— Ballots and other election materials remain within the custody and control of election space, rather than having to move between spaces with additional paperwork requirements and the logistics of moving those materials to another site.