Brown says she wants to make election process better

State Sen. Dee Brown, R-Coram, said one of her goals this session is to make the election process better in Montana. The incumbent from Senate District 2 ran unopposed this election.

Brown is the chairwoman of the state administration committee. She said she’s working with Bryce Bennett of Missoula on bi-partisan legislation to address election problems.

For example, she said she wants to change the name of an absentee ballot to a mail ballot.

“They’re really not absent,” she said.

She’s also heard of election differences from county to county. For example, she said some departments have different rules. She said she heard from two young men who tried to register to vote on the day before election day in Flathead County. They went to the election office, but they were told it closed at noon.

“If we’re going to have last minute voting, we’re going to need to be open at the last minute in my mind,” she said.

Another item on her legislative agenda is to get the state Department of Transportation to reduce the amount of de-icer its using on roads. She said the state has always used a de-icer, but now it’s applying too much. It’s bad for the Flathead’s pristine waters and it ruins vehicles.

“We need to get back to historic levels,” she said.

She also will re-introduce a bill to create a Trade Center for Montana in Calgary that would promote the state. It would be financed by bed tax money. She notes that Calgary has a population that’s greater than the entire state of Montana and Montana should be better promoted there.

She introduced the same measure in the last legislative session, but it failed.

Brown also wants to strengthen the state’s outreach to veterans, noting their high suicide rate.

“There’s a lot of things we can do to help the mental health of veterans,” she said.

She said infrastructure will be a high priority as well, but it needs to be focused on roads and bridges and other needs, not buildings. She noted the bill that failed last session including renovating an old gym on the Montana State University campus.