Missoula Legislator Casts Electoral Vote at State Capitol

On Monday, Missoula area state legislator Brad Tschida was one of three Montanans who cast their official electoral ballots for President of the United States.

Tschida appeared on the KGVO Talk Back show to talk about the experience.

“There were more media folks and there were people from the Secretary of State's office and electors,” said Tschida. “There were three of us that were gathered together with Secretary of State Corey Stapleton with Dana Corson, the elections administrator, a gal by the name of Debbie Ames, who was coordinating this event and then there were the three electors and a couple of folks who were there with some of the electors, but it was it was held in room 172, which is one of the committee hearing rooms in the State Capitol.”

Tschida related the method by which the electoral votes were cast.

“Each member is given a sheet to vote for the President and the Vice President to cast our electoral votes,” he said. “Then once that is completed, those three votes are tabulated. And the results are then given to the chairperson, and I served in that capacity for the three of us who were there, and then we acknowledge that the votes were in fact cast according to the way the three electors have determined them to be cast.”

Tschida continued to describe the ceremony of casting electoral votes.

“Once we concluded casting our ballots, there were six forms that needed to be completed, and there were various copies that were sent off to the Senate President at the U.S. Senate chambers, there were a number of copies that were sent off to the archivists and there were other copies that were sent to a couple of different entities just to make sure that everything was confirmed and was acknowledged as it was officially determined during our vote session.”

Tschida said there is an option for an elector to cast his vote other than for the chosen candidate, but that he would never betray the public trust.

“I could have cast the ballot for whomever I decided to,” he said. “I was asked that question by one of the news folks a couple of days ago, and I said, ‘I can't think of a circumstance under which I would tell people in the state of Montana who overwhelmingly chose Donald J. Trump as a president, sorry, I know better than you’. It was clear and apparent who the candidate was that the people in the state of Montana chose overwhelmingly, and that was the easy decision to make. “

Tschida serves as a state legislator in House District 97.