The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Finding a way to serve our community is easy. All you have to do is look for a place that interests you and get involved. This year's primary election is the perfect example. It takes 10 people to man the voting place. They've been involved in serving our community for many years. They've put their time into making sure our democracy counts. Marla Drga has served for 40 years; Michelle Danreuther 30 years; Marilyn Swanson 24 years; Lil Foussard "to many years to count"-35 years; Cindy DesRosier 30 years; Ann Bitz more than 20 years. Those who have chosen to serve in recently are Sarah Drga, Rebecca (Bitz) Wiehe, and Linda Schwarzbach have been serving for two years. This year Dee Pribyl is serving for the first time. She said, "I was so excited I couldn't sleep last night."

l to r: Marilyn Swanson, Dee Pribyl, Linda Schwarzbach, and Lil Foussard.

The Primaries took place June 5th. There are 847,213 adults eligible to vote in the state of Montana, 679,231 of the number are registered voters. That means 167,982 Montanans are not registered to vote.

There was a total turn out, state wide, of 41% of registered voters or 281,416. So, the truth is 33% is the actual percentage of involved citizens in the state of Montana. One third of the population makes the decisions for 2/3 of our citizens. That means a minority sets the direction we take as a state.