Should running for office and being certified the winner make you liable for the legal fees of someone who challenges the results?

The results of last year's House District 12 election are finally complete. Justice lost.

Acting on a court order, the Lake County sheriff on Aug. 31 confiscated the $543.60 from Rick Jore's checking accounts at Community Bank in Ronan. The bank took the remaining $25 in his account as its fee for the transaction. The rest goes to the Meloy-Trieweiler law firm in Helena, the firm that represented the Democratic candidate who won the Nov. 2 election with an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The worst of Jore's punishment is yet to come. An Aug. 25 order from state District Court Judge Kim Christopher of Polson directs Sheriff Bill Barron to collect from Jore a total of $15,663.56 - plus 10 percent interest dating to June 16. Finding but a fraction of that amount in Jore's bank accounts, the sheriff now is supposed to seize $15,119.96 worth of Jore's personal property, moving on to his house or land after that if necessary. For his trouble, the sheriff will collect a final $60 as his fee for taking Jore's money and property.

What did Jore do to earn such a penalty?

Nothing. He broke no law. He violated nobody's rights. He neglected no duty. All he did was run for public office, for a seat in the Montana House of Representatives.

Jore ran as the Constitution Party candidate in a three-way race against Republican Jack Cross and Democrat Jeanne Windham. Lake County election officials initially declared the election a tie between Jore and Windham, with Cross trailing a distant third. However a handful of ballots counted for Jore were challenged by Windham and the Democrats. And for good reason: Several ballots marked for Jore also had marks adjacent to Cross' name. County election judges somehow divined the voters' intention in those cases to be to vote for Jore. With the election ending in an apparent tie, the governor got to appoint the winner. She picked Jore. A voter and Democratic proxy named Anita Big Spring appealed to the state Supreme Court.

All Jore did was respond to the lawsuit and argue that hte results should stand -- and he therefore was assessed the legal fees of the folks who challenged the outcome -- even though he is accused of nothing other than having been declared the winner. That outcome is sick.

Posted by: Greg at 02:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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