I’ve been voting in Cascade County for years.

The last time I voted at an in-person voting location was in 2000 at North Middle School.

Every voting cycle since then I’ve voted absentee. The Cascade County elections office sends me my ballot through the mail, I vote, and then I drop the ballot off in-person.

During election times in Cascade County I’ve always understood that I had the option to receive an absentee mail ballot or to do in-person voting. I chose the absentee voting option because it’s much more convenient for me and I drop off in-person because sometimes I might not have a whole lot of faith in the postal service.

Lately there seems to be some sort of a kerfuffle going on about how our elections systems/processes are being handled at the local level here in Cascade County.

The “original” headline from The Electric stated, “Ballots Not Mailed On April 17″ — whereas KRTV stated, “Cascade County Elections Department confirms mailing of absentee ballots.”

It’s usually always best to wait and see what actually happens instead of having to worry about changing your headline later because you jumped the gun … also, Jane Weber needs to settle down and eat some fruit or something.

Being since I received my ballot on the 18th, I would tend to error on the side of caution here and give KRTV it’s due accolades on being correct with it’s reporting. As a side note, it’s been years since I’ve seen the postal service here in Great Falls deliver mail cross-town in only a day (they must be improving).

When people start to politicize a process things can get murky in a hurry. This whole “he said she said” crap doesn’t really fly around here. I don’t ever recall “everybody” liking whoever gets elected and this whole elections deal here in Cascade County is no exception … it’s all just the usual politics.

The recent story on KRTV that talked about some folks getting more than one ballot for the same thing is also something that could easily be blown out of proportion. Regular normal mistakes can be made on any day of the week, but when you start to politicize the process, those regular mistakes are made out to be something akin to the sky falling. Chances are good that mistakes can be made when you’ve got a bunch of political near-do-wells breathing down your neck when you’re trying to do your job.

Settle down folks … the sky isn’t falling … this is all just politics as usual. All we have is a bunch of people not liking a bunch of other people here in Cascade County because somebody won or lost an election. That’s it.

When my wife went to University over in western Washington state she was required, by Washington state law, to obtain a Washington drivers license due to the length of time she was there. Fair enough I suppose, but in Washington, you get registered to vote automatically when you get your drivers license.

It’s really a rather interesting story actually, in that my wife never voted in Washington and that upon after returning to Montana she got Washington state election ballots in the mail that covered not one, but two election cycles in that state.

She didn’t immediately jump up and call KRTV or KOMO about it and she didn’t go off on any rants about how the state of Washington was stumping for out of state non-resident votes. When she couldn’t get anywhere with the county elections office over there, she contacted the elections commission in Olympia and so far she hasn’t received any other mailings.

I vote, and sometimes my guy wins, and sometimes my guy loses … it’s a fact of life. If my guy loses, I don’t go all off-the-cuff and get my nose out of joint over it.

At any rate, we work with what we’ve got and for all of the political posers, trolls, and grifters we’ve got out there it’s not an easy job. I’ve found that it’s always best to not jump to any conclusions because somebody else might be having a political angst over something.

I received my ballot in a timely manor, just like “always”, so I’ll resign myself to voting for who I think might be best suited to doing the job.

sourced: The Electric (original reference link – https://theelectricgf.com/2023/04/17/ballots-not-mailed-on-april-17-county-staff-volunteers-spent-week-stuffing-envelopes/)

https://thewesternword.com/

Thanks for the read.

Happy Trails

Have you ever been stuck in Montana traffic?

We’ve all seen the flyers showing all of our wide open spaces and the very sparsely populated interstates with majestic mountains as a backdrop I’m sure, but once you get into the Montana towns that have seemingly grown up too fast over the past 40 some odd years, you might want to take another look at the wide open space mantra that we’ve become so used to hearing.

Poor city planning and explosive growth have both teamed up to give Missoula the dubious distinction of being first place in Montana as having the worst traffic, according to INRIX, a traffic data and analytics company.

Montana is growing, and all of those sleepy little towns in western Montana that were once filled with plaid shirts and Elmer Fudd hats are taking the brunt of that growth. Small valleys in the west are bursting to the brim with literally everybody and anybody that bought into that whole wide open spaces deal that our flyers are so known for.

The Missoula valley is small and tight as far as valleys go, so it’s no wonder that all of the surrounding hills are full of houses. Streets are narrow, congested, and were seemingly built by those who thought it would be great to follow that cow around the pasture.

Travel farther east to Bozeman and you’ll see a lot of the same thing. The core of these towns were built back in the by-gone era of the horse drawn model T with no thought to any possible future growth or development. It was only in the mid to late 80’s that folks in these towns started to wake up to what might lay ahead in the fanatical growth department. Being proactive (with regard to growth) wasn’t a term that had ever existed in the western Montana city planner lexicon until the mid to late 90’s. By then, it was too late. The gnarly wait times at un-synchronized traffic lights on the narrow streets were now a thing.

Enter Great Falls, Montana. The only known to be planned city in the entire state. With Missoula being stuck with all of it’s tiny 1 foot approach transitions, Great Falls sports it’s 5 foot approach transitions (street construction speak). I’ve built approaches in both Missoula and Great Falls. Great Falls is literally the very definition of what it might be like to live in a land with all of those wide open spaces. Even the downtown core, minus Central Ave, is spacious with plenty of room to park. Central Ave. in Great Falls was FUBAR’ED into some quasi-quaint little something or ‘ruther throwback to what Missoula’s core functions are like today for some reason that defies any and all explanation and it’s about as tough to get around on too.

Being stuck in Montana traffic is more of a thing these days in western Montana than it is in eastern Montana. Missoula’s traffic woes have even gone so far as to include the near entirety of the US93 corridor, from Eureka to Sula.

The air quality in our western Montana valleys is atrocious. People sitting, idling, waiting, sometimes for seeming eternities, burning all of the fuel that ads to the already saturated valley inversions that western Montana is so known for. Doesn’t anyone find it odd that most of our state’s environmentalists have chosen to live in the areas of our state that are the most polluted?

But I digress — The problem here is traffic.

Have I ever been stuck in Montana traffic? Of course I have. Way back in the far reaches of my brain, I can recall having to sit at the now infamous malfunction junction in Missoula. I remember driving Reserve St. from Brooks to the interstate in a record time of 50 minutes back when Reserve St was only two lanes (was normally one hour and 20 to drive it).

Long wait times in Montana traffic can only be measured in local terms statewide because I’ve driven areas much worse. It’s going to be all about a certain perspective.

I used to bitch about Seattle traffic, that is, until I drove Houston.

When I worked the FEMA houses after hurricane Ike in southeast Texas, it was normal to spend 20 hours a week on the interstate. I think about those days in Texas, from Sugarland to Bay Town to Galveston to Beaumont as they might relate to my Montana driving experiences, and these days, places like Missoula gets a nod and a wink from me with regard to it’s traffic.

Of all 280 U.S. cities covered in the INRIX report, Missoula ranks 63rd for traffic delays.

National polls are what they are and sometimes are fun to read because of their entertainment value. The poll with regard to Montana commute times, what with all of their best city/worst city case scenarios only hits the mark when making reference to Missoula.

I’m guessing that if the poll was taken today, we might be seeing Kalispell included in the mix somewhere along the line. To go even a step further with the whole poll deal, I’d like to see fuel consumption rates included for our western Montana friends as it might relate to the commute times.

The reason why I might mention fuel here is because I use less fuel driving from Vaughn to Malmstrom than I do driving from Broadway to Lolo on average — fuel consumption can say a lot with regard to the difficulty of any commute as far as I’m concerned. I’d be interested in looking at the stats from some back east poll service that would have natural resources factored into the commute. Time is pretty easy to calculate, adding fuel consumption into the mix might mean that poll researchers would actually have to come to Montana to get the real numbers.

Mentioning actual time lost being stuck in Montana traffic is all just fine and dandy and all, but what would really drive the point home, and make the polling a bit more useful on these so-called long commutes would be if they included the actual real cost of the fuel, and the carbon footprint that might be involved whilst sitting at light after light after light.

You can sign up to receive the INRIX 2022 Traffic Scorecard Report here: https://inrix.com/scorecard/#form-download-the-full-report

At any rate — ’till next time.

Thanks for the read.

Happy Trails.

On a recent road trip to Helena we had the opportunity to visit our Montana State Capital building. The legislature was in session so everybody was there, including the Governor.

One of the more notable features at the Montana State Capital building is the Tribal Flag Plaza: If your state doesn’t fly the flags of it’s First Nations People at it’s Capital, then it should.

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Our son was born in Great Falls in 2006 and this was his first opportunity to actually go into the Montana State Capital building for a look around.

Governor Greg Gianforte is the second Montana Governor our son has met so far (he met our previous Governor Steve Bullock in the fall of last year), and he plans to meet more as time goes on.

I hadn’t actually been inside of the Capital building since Marc Racicot was Governor, so it was hard for me to remember where exactly everything was.

It was great that the legislature was in session, because our son was able to experience our state legislators going about their business on the House and Senate floors.

I think that more young people should visit their State Capital buildings and experience, first hand, how things are actually done, by real people, dealing with real issues.
Too many times we see our legislators on TV coupled with short sound bites, and rare is it that folks will take the time to go see those same legislators in real time on the House or the Senate floor doing the things they were elected to do.

Our son is only 16 years old and doesn’t get all off into the political flavor of the day, but even still, he has an interest in how things might get done. He sat and watched an afternoon session in the House with great enthusiasm — he listened to all of the questions and answers, he also made note of the decorum, and was somewhat impressed at the amount of respect each side gave to the other.
It wasn’t at all about what he might have learned on the television. These people actually talked to each other — provided each other with actual answers to the questions being asked. Some bills failed while other bills passed.

When we got up to the visitors gallery in the House chamber, the sergeant at arms graciously unlocked the doors and let us in early before the session started. There are always going to be rules and protocol for how things are done in any State Capital building, but here we are … in Montana. We treat each other with kindness, trust, and dignity. We often times find ourselves doing things we don’t have to do just because.

The Capital building security and the members of our Montana Highway Patrol were stellar as always.

Our State Capital building is a priceless work of art. The building was constructed between 1896 and 1902 with wing-annexes added between 1909 and 1912.

The building, constructed of Montana sandstone and granite, is in Greek neoclassical architectural style, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The exterior of the dome is covered with copper. Atop the dome is a feminine statue affectionately dubbed Montana.

The most notable feature inside the center of the Montana State Capitol building is the massive rotunda, with four circular paintings surrounding it. These paintings, painted for the Capitol opening in 1902 by the firm of F. Pedretti’s Sons.

The most significant piece of art in the Capitol is by Montana’s famous Western artist Charles M. Russell. The 1912 painting, titled Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians at Ross’ Hole, is 25 feet long and twelve feet high. It depicts the explorers Lewis and Clark meeting Montana’s Bitterroot Salish people upon their return across the Bitterroot Mountains from the Pacific Ocean. It is now displayed above the Speaker’s chair in the House of Representatives’ chamber.

Of particular note:

The bronze equestrian statue in front of the Capital building is that of Thomas Francis Meagher.
The statue was cast in 1905 by the American Bronze Foundry, Chicago, Illinois.
A native of Ireland, Meagher (1823-1867) was an Irish revolutionary, a Brigadier General in the U. S. Army during the Civil War, and was appointed Secretary of the Territory of Montana in 1865.
Soon after arriving in Montana, he was designated Acting Governor.

Thomas Francis Meagher is considered to be one of Montana’s founding fathers.

The Tribal Flag Plaza:

The eight tribal nation flags fly next to the U.S. and Montana flags on the north lawn between the grand staircase and the statue of Thomas Francis Meagher.

Montana’s tribes include the Blackfeet Nation, Chippewa Cree Tribe, Crow Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, Little Shell Chippewa Tribe and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.

At a May 2019 signing for HB 524, then Governor Steve Bullock said the monument will be a symbol of respect and understanding, and a recognition that the Capitol belongs to everybody.

Watch the flag raising ceremony from the Montana Public Affairs Network here: https://youtu.be/y3EbWeCa9y0