Who Runs Gallatin County Elections After 2026?
The commission voted 3-0 to take the Election Administrator off the ballot. Voters will no longer be able to fire the person who runs elections.
Who Runs Gallatin County Elections After 2026? Another change in County Government?
Eric Semerad’s term as Clerk and Recorder / Election Administrator / Surveyor ends December 31, 2026. Beginning in 2027, the Election Administrator portion of the elected job will be removed from the Clerk and Recorder and placed under the supervision of the County Commissioners. On 12/9/2025 the Commission voted 3-0 to pass a resolution brought forth by Eric Semerad to remove this duty from his office and instead create a bureaucratic appointed / hired position. This removes the ability of the voter to directly determine who runs our election office and to hold them directly accountable by voting them in or out of office as was originally set up in MT law. In addition, because the three County Commissioners are elected on a rotating basis, the chances of the voting public being able to affect this position through their ballot has been reduced to slim to none. How did this happen and what else has been going on in our Elections Department for the past decade?
Let's take a quick look at some history on this subject. In 2017 Charlotte Mills, Clerk and Recorder, brought forth a Resolution to remove the Election Administrator position from the Clerk and Recorder and place it underneath the Commissioners. It did not pass. Both Republican and Democrat parties and officials were against it back then.
When Eric Semerad, the Democrat Clerk and Recorder, brought forth the Resolution in December of 2025, that was passed by the 3 Democrat County Commissioners, he used reasons in the written "consideration" to include it "mitigates potential partisan candidates who may seek office on a whim or in order to advance the cause of their party without any actual experience in conducting an election." Hmmm, that sounds partisan, especially based on the current control at the courthouse.
Or how about in the 2020 election cycle when Gallatin County filed for and received $295,681 in Center for Tech and Civic Life money (otherwise known as "Zuck Bucks"). Montana ranked #4 in the nation per capita at $2.26 and Gallatin County ranked #12 in MT at $2.49. We know that at least part of that money was used for a mobile election office.
As a reminder of the concerns over CTCL money in Montana, go here:
https://publicinterestlegal.org/research/final-frontier-zuckbucks-in-montana/
National background on Zuck Bucks:
https://capitalresearch.org/article/shining-a-light-on-zuck-bucks-in-key-states/
In addition, how about in the election cycle of 2022 when Open Democracy PAC spent $63,000 indirectly to help Democrat incumbent Eric Semerad defeat his opponent and stay in office. Open Democracy PAC was a Washington, D.C. PAC largely funded by George Soros through Arabella Advisors and the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Marc Elias, the Clinton/Obama/Biden election lawyer, was on the board. The spending portrayed Semerad’s opponent as an election denier because she ran in part on election process transparency and accountability. In the same cycle, Open Democracy PAC spent about $45,000 to support the Democrat for Clerk and Recorder in Lewis and Clark County.
Further partisan politics at play. In the County Commission meeting in December, Commissioner Zach Brown stated (paraphrased for transcription): "I have an election coming up and this probably is not going to be good for that, in light of voter opposition to this decision, but I am still voting to move the election administration."
Listen to Commissioner Brown:
Additionally, Representative Jedediah Hinkle called in to remind the Commission of the situation outlined in 2017 and that both parties opposed the move, and the Commission rejected it. He noted that it is only now, with Democrats in charge of both the Commission and the Clerk and Recorder’s office, that Democrats have changed their minds to support the transfer instead of standing behind "democracy" as they claim. Meanwhile, the Republican party at-large remains consistent in its stance that transferring this responsibility is a bad decision.
Listen to Rep. Hinkle:
Commissioner Brown, in justifying his vote to approve the transfer, erroneously labeled this a partisan issue just minutes after Rep. Hinkle laid out facts to the contrary.
Full meeting, December 9, 2025, 9:00 a.m.: LINK
Rep. Hinkle begins at about 1:05:00. Commissioner Brown’s partisan comment is at about 1:22:11.
In 2017, both parties said no. In 2025, with Democrats holding the commission and the Clerk and Recorder’s office, the same move passed 3-0. Starting in 2027, voters will no longer directly hire or fire the person who runs Gallatin County elections.
