Judge rules irrigation election valid
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POLSON – District Court Judge James Manley ruled on Tuesday, Dec. 13, that the winning candidates in the Flathead Joint Board of Control election are to be seated at the earliest possible date.
He stated that the May 3, 2016, FJBC election results to seat three new commissioners were certified by the Lake County Election Administrators and those results are final and enforceable.
In court documents, he stated that the resolution of the FJBC to cancel the election, disregard the results of the election, and hold a replacement election, were beyond the lawful authority of the FJBC. He also stated that no further resolutions or actions of the FJBC are lawful until the three candidates are seated.
Janette Rosman was one of the three elected board members not able to take her seat after the election. On Wednesday, she was happy to hear about Manley’s decision.
“I don’t know what is going to happen from here, but we are going to take the high road and move forward,” she said.
The next regular meeting is in January, which is when Rosman thinks she will be able to take her seat. She was elected to serve on the board for the Flathead District, which is part of the FJBC.
On May 10, 2016, Flathead District Commissioner Dick Erb swore in Rosman after she received a majority 30,038 votes to Wayne Blevins’ 25,531. David Lake was also sworn in at that time, and he had the majority vote with 40,304 to Shane Orien’s 15,275.
Mission District Commissioner Ray Swenson won with 5,098 votes to Jerry Laskody’s 2,932 votes. Swenson has not been sworn in.
The election issues started when the majority of FJBC members said there wasn’t enough time before the election to inform voters of a new state voting rule that required one landowner to vote on land with multiple owners. Election officials said they did give the FJBC enough notice about the change to inform the public so the election was held.
The majority of the FJBC voted to cancel the election after they felt that 800 election ballots were not properly sent out to voters.
Lake County Election officials didn’t initially send out all of those ballots due to the new requirements that one person needed to be designated to vote because many people didn’t fill out the form before voting, although some people said they didn’t receive a ballot and they didn’t think they needed to fill out a form.
Judge Manley also ruled on an issue to unseal and inspect certain ballots. Lake County voluntarily unsealed the ballots so no action was required.
Board members from the previous election have held their seats until Judge Manley made his decision. Before the decision, the FJBC wanted to hold another special election, but Lake County election officials said they couldn’t hold another election until a judge ruled whether the first election was valid or not.
