Secretary of State

By SUSAN GALLAGHER/Associated Press

HELENA - Republican Secretary of State Brad Johnson wants another four years as Montana's top election official, as Democrat Linda McCulloch makes her case for why she should be elected.

McCulloch, state school superintendent for the past eight years, says she wants to improve efficiency and voter outreach by the secretary, whose work apart from elections involves maintaining assorted documents required of businesses.

Johnson says he is running for re-election to accomplish more of his goals.

"We feel that there have been substantial advancements in both technology and organization of the office, but there's still progress to be made and I want to finish those projects that I started in my first term," said Johnson, whose annual salary is $79,129.

Development of a statewide voter registration database is among the gains, he said, and the remaining work includes installation of a multimillion-dollar mainframe computer.

McCulloch has criticized Johnson for lines that delayed voting at some polling places in 2006, and for missing six of the several dozen state Land Board meetings held during his term in office.

The secretary is one of five elected officials on the board, which manages state lands. Money from logging and other activity on those lands benefits public schools.

Johnson, who is 57 and previously operated a business in the Bozeman area, said the 2006 delays were related to implementation of a law that allows for voter registration the day of an election.

"With Election Day registration in place in 2006 for the first time, we didn't know what to expect," he said.

In Missoula and Bozeman particularly, people showed up in unusually large numbers in 2006, lines formed and voters faced delays to cast ballots, but no one in line before the polls' scheduled closing time was turned away, he said.

Johnson proposes ending Election Day registration and says doing so would make it easier for local election administrators to work efficiently.

Under his proposal, registration would end at the close of business on the Friday before an election.

The former Gallatin County businessman said illness accounted for two of his Land Board absences, and the others largely happened when he was busy with activities such as election seminars.

Deficiencies that a 2007 state audit identified in the secretary of state's office have been addressed fully, Johnson said. The deficiencies included failure to remove deceased voters and felons from registration lists.

McCulloch, 53, said her experience as state school superintendent and earlier as a school librarian has given her a background transferable to the secretary's office, both in elections work and in the business services unit. Work there includes processing businesses' annual reports.

McCulloch said she wants to increase voter participation through outreach in schools and colleges, and would ask the Legislature to allow high school students as poll workers.

Also in the race for secretary of state is the Constitution Party's Sieglinde Sharbono, a 49-year-old Stevensville homemaker who wants to end electronic counting of votes and reinstate counting by hand. Electronic ballot scanners are subject to tampering by computer hackers, Sharbono said.

Johnson said a few Montana counties rely on hand counting of votes, but most use electronic scanners.

"It is simply not accurate to suggest they can be hacked into from remote computers," he said.

Tampering with election results would require a person to physically take control of the scanner and reprogram it, he said, adding that under his watch the state has given election offices statewide "some very detailed best practices related to hardware security."

Sharbono said she knows of no voter fraud in Montana, "but we believe in being proactive rather than reactive."

Campaign-finance reports filed with the state political practices commissioner in September show that McCulloch received $53,145 and spent $19,685.

Johnson reported $41,617 in receipts and $21,684 in expenditures.

Sharbono reported having no campaign funds or expenses.