- [Jackie] Happening now on The Rundown.

(crowd mumbling) Montana's 67th legislative session is underway and it's the first week on the job for Montana's new governor, Greg Gianforte.

- I fully intend to rescind the existing statewide mask mandate.

- [Jackie] But tension hangs over the Capitol as the legislature meets against the guidance of health officials with no requirements for masks.

- I'm Jackie Coffin and The Rundown Capitol Report starts now.

- The Rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Thank you again for joining me in Helena.

In this episode, I'll talk to Senator Jon tester about insurrection, Governor Greg Gianforte about COVID-19 and his proposed budget.

And Montana's new secretary of state, Christi Jacobsen about election security.

So let's get into it.

- Starting with the news that stunned the nation and how your Montana delegates fit in.

As violent extremists stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Steve Daines and Representative Matt Rosendale were all present.

The rioters were attempting to halt the certification of electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden, spouting baseless claims of election fraud.

There is no credible evidence of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

All of the attempts to challenge the results in court have failed.

13 senators in several congressional representatives plan to contest the certification of the electoral votes on January 6th, including Senator Steve Daines and Representative Matt Rosendale.

Senator Daines changed his mind after the insurrection and extremist activities.

Congressman Rosendale did not.

Ultimately, the electoral votes were certified and Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20th.

On Thursday, the day after the insurrection, I caught up with Senator Tester on Zoom to talk about what should be done next.

And beginning our conversation, I would just like to start with asking you how you are today and an update on today's Thursday, from the Capitol from what you're seeing business-wise, security-wise and the atmosphere.

- Well, I think what I feel today as I'm still stunned and saddened by what happened yesterday, I think anytime that there's violent actions against our nation, against our nation's government, anytime you have the Capitol under siege and basically, a coup attempt on our government, it shakes you to your core.

And the fact is that today, if you walk around the Capitol complex, you really wouldn't know that anything happened yesterday.

It's people at their posts.

There's a few more police officers than there were yesterday around by my view.

But you don't see a lot of things that have transpired that would indicate that what happened yesterday was what happened yesterday.

But the truth is, we can't ignore what happened yesterday.

And the fact is that, I stand with my colleagues who, on both sides of the aisle by the way, who put country before party and respect the outcome of this election, and aren't afraid to tell the truth to their constituents.

And I will say that the folks who breached this Capitol, that hasn't been done in over 200 years, need to be held accountable.

I will also tell you that the 13 senators that helped enable the president and enable this lie to continue on the election, need to be held to account.

If we don't do that, I think we're making a big mistake and history will repeat itself over and over and over again.

I think it's incumbent upon the common sense folks who serve the United States Senate to make sure that this never happens to again.

- There are calls today for President Trump to be removed.

Is that something you support?

- Look, I've watched for the last four years, the president has done his best to divide this country and bring our democracy to its knees.

And yesterday, the insurrection yesterday was a clear continuation of that effort.

But the truth is I don't see a realistic path for his removal over the next two weeks.

My Republican colleagues, particularly the enablers of yesterday's event, they've shown zero interest to do anything about that.

- So as you said, this is kind of the, yesterday's events were sort of the culmination of this effort to sow doubt in our election process and the results and the division that has been occurring in our country.

But some of Montana's senators, your colleagues on the other side of the aisle of the delegation, have supported that so far, of the denial of election results.

Have you had any conversations with them since yesterday, or even ahead of yesterday about this?

- No, I haven't.

I thought what they did, both Senator Daines and our newly elected Representative, Rosendale, and before that, Representative Gianforte, was irresponsible.

And I think that, quite frankly, they have answers to be given to the people of the State of Montana and to the people of this country.

The fact of the matter is that, whether it was for raising money or political expediency or whatever it might be, this is not how you set an example of how democracy is supposed to work.

What we saw yesterday was something that you would expect to see in Venezuela for God's sakes.

And quite frankly, if we don't come together in a very divided country, if we don't come together and start figuring out that what we do and what we say matters, then this kind of incidence is gonna happen again and again and again.

And at some point in time, the folks who do the coup will be successful.

And we no longer will have our Republic that has been in existence for the last 240 years.

And we will no longer have the opportunity in this nation that has been here for 240 years.

We cannot take this nation for granted.

We need to look at our constitution, read our constitution, understand what's in that constitution and live by it.

That's not what's being done today.

- And you're a Democrat who can attract Republicans in a state like Montana or moderates, independent voters in looking at a divided country.

How do both sides play a part in healing that divide and bringing people back together?

- So there were some things that happened yesterday that I think were pretty darn impressive.

Leader McConnell that I have been critical of time and time again stepped up and did his job and talked about how this was the most important vote he is gonna do in 36 years of his time in the Senate, and that's certifying this election.

And quite frankly, he's right.

And if you take a look at the other folks on the other side of the aisle that stepped up, folks like Ben Sasse, folks like Todd Young, they may not make any difference to people in Montana, but these folks were able to make sure that their voices were heard, Mitt Romney, there were others.

Mike Lee out of Utah, somebody who I don't agree with much of the time, but laid it on the line, all those folks did.

And I will tell you that, that's a good sign.

It tells us that we have an opportunity to work together and move forward for the benefit of this country, not a political party, but for the benefit of this country.

And that's what we need to be focused on.

- [Jackie] In Helena that day, there were pro Trump protestors at the Montana Capitol who flew flags and held "Stop the Steal" signs, but they were peaceful.

- [Man] God bless America.

(crowd cheering) - [Jackie] A similar protest was held Monday, the first day of session on the North steps of the Capitol.

While on the South side of the Capitol, nurses held signs urging everyone to wear masks inside the Capitol to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

- Well, this protest is, we're asking our legislators to protect our community and ultimately protect our state.

This is a super spreader event waiting to happen, and all these legislators will go home.

And if they're infected, they'll carry the virus forward to their communities.

We represent nurses on the front line and nurses are stretched thin, our healthcare system is stretched thin.

We are asking our elected officials to be responsible.

Let's take care of our frontline workers.

And that's what we're here today to talk about, protecting our communities and protecting our frontline workers.

Wear a mask, social distance, do as much of this at home.

There are many legislators that are here for maybe for the first couple of days and they'll be working at home.

I think we've all seen how technology can work to protect our communities.

We're still right in the midst of this pandemic and we have to be very careful.

- [Jackie] How to hold the legislative session was a controversial topic over the past several months.

And throughout this week, Democrats wanted a remote session or rules requiring masks.

Most Republicans wanted an in-person session with masks optional.

A joint legislative rules committee decided in December to hold the session in person with masks optional.

And so commenced the 67th legislative session in Helena with a swearing in on Monday.

- (crowd mumbling) - Do solemnly swear.

- (Crowd) Do solemnly swear.

- That I will support, protect and defend.

- (Crowd) That I will support, protect and defend.

- The constitution of the United States.

- (Crowd) The constitution of the United States.

- The constitution of the State of Montana.

- (Crowd) The constitution of the State of Montana.

- (Jackie) Four days into the session, the first case of COVID-19 in the Capitol was confirmed by Republican house leadership.

They released the information Thursday night that representative Dave Bedey, a Republican from Hamilton tested positive for the virus after a contact made before the session began.

Representative Bedey is quarantining and participating in the session remotely.

But in a statement says he still supports an in-person session.

House Minority Leader, Kim Abbot, a Democrat from Helena, responded saying she appreciates Representative Bedey's actions to inform the public, but is still deeply frustrated that the legislature did not have procedures in place to prevent this.

Along with legislators, this was the first week on the job for Governor Greg Gianforte.

- I Greg Gianforte, - I Greg Gianforte, - do solemnly swear, - do solemnly swear.

- (Jackie) On Tuesday, Governor Greg Gianforte updated reporters on his plans for COVID-19 in Montana.

- I fully intend to rescind the existing statewide mask mandate.

The path to rescinding the mandate will be clear.

First, we need to get going.

We need to start getting the vaccine to the most vulnerable.

Second, we need to protect businesses and schools from lawsuits if they make a good faith effort to protect individuals from the spread of the Coronavirus and follow clear public health guidelines.

To combat the virus, I believe providing incentives and promoting personal responsibility are more effective than imposing impractical mandates.

- (Jackie) To clarify this, the mask mandate put in place by Former Governor Steve Bullock is still in place.

Governor Gianforte will fully remove the mask mandate when more people are vaccinated and schools and businesses are no longer liable to get sued for COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Gianforte says this will happen in weeks, not months.

By Friday, legislation for COVID liability protection was already in front of the Senate business labor and economic affairs committee drafted and introduced by Senator Steve Fitzpatrick of Great Falls.

To meet his first criteria of vaccinating, the most vulnerable, Governor Gianforte modified the vaccine timeline in Montana to push people over the age of 70 and with underlying conditions to get vaccinated faster.

That will happen January 15th.

Right now, it's still just healthcare workers who are getting the vaccine.

So how is vaccine rollout going in Montana?

General Matt Quinn of the Montana COVID-19 Task Force says Montana is eighth in the nation for vaccine rollout, but says we do face geographic challenges for distribution.

- I'll tell you, Montana is number eight in the nation right now in terms of getting shots into the arms.

I think we're doing pretty well.

Remember, we've got a geography that's pretty diverse and so the long-term care and assisted living facilities are being done by CVS and Walgreens, that was an opt-in program that the state made.

They are getting out to those locations and taking care of those locations.

But again, a lot of geography to cover, and so they're moving through that, but I think Montana's doing well, certainly would like to be at 100%, but number eight and the nation isn't bad in terms of getting shots in the arms.

- (Jackie) I wanted to see for myself, on Wednesday, I visited the Gallatin County COVID-19 vaccine pod or point of dispensing, and went on a tour with Patrick Lonergan, chief of Gallatin County emergency management and some other reporters seeing how the pod operates and watching the assistant fire chief of Hyalite Fire Department get his shot.

- [Patrick] This is Gallatin's County's first point of dispensing or pod as it's commonly referred to.

We started our first operational day on Monday.

Today is the second day of pod operations.

And we're using this to help dispense vaccinations for COVID-19 to healthcare personnel around the County.

So as you all know, some of the large healthcare providers like the hospital and community health partners received direct allocations of vaccine for their in-house employees.

And now we're using allocations coming into the County to pick up all those other independent healthcare providers throughout the County here and to work on vaccinating them.

All of these individuals have signed up on time slots to try and space them out throughout the day.

Obviously, our goal is not to have people stacked up in lines and in people's social distancing space.

So they're all signed up on schedules.

They've been provided the required waiver form to fill out ahead of time.

So when they arrive, all they should have to do is hand in their form, sign in that they're here and then follow the instructions from the guides that you'll see inside.

We have eight stations set up around this first building here.

Each one of those stations is set up with staff to provide the vaccination and to guide the person getting the vaccination through the process.

They receive the vaccination and then they go out the back of the building into a second building, which is our waiting area where they then do their 15 minute evaluation to make sure they're not having an adverse reaction to the vaccination.

While they're in there, they also have the opportunity to register in the federal government's V-safe program, where they can provide feedback to the government about how they're reacting to their vaccination and for statistical type stuff.

They also have the opportunity while they're in there to get scheduled for their second follow-up dose.

And then after they hit their 15 minute period, they're free to exit the building out the back and come around and go on their way and come back in 28 days to get their second vaccination.

- [Jackie] Currently, the only pod in Gallatin County about 300 healthcare workers are getting vaccinated here a day.

Lonergan says this is manageable right now, but with the, Lonergan says this is manageable right now, but with the governor's expanded vaccine plan, they may have a hard time keeping up.

- So the question is, do we have lack of providers to administer the vaccine that we're receiving?

And no, we do not right now.

However, that is a concern that we see down the road.

So right now we're receiving three to 500 doses a week is what we've seen the last couple of weeks here.

And so we only have enough vaccine to really run this one pod site.

And we do have the personnel to support that.

However, we don't have a lot of personnel to support more pods beyond that.

With that being said, we're working with the hospital for additional staffing.

We're also working with a private contractor to provide medical personnel to help supplement our in-house people and provide for that expansion down the road.

And additionally, we've been working with the fire department, so you'll likely see there's some paramedics in here from some of our local fire departments given that vaccination today.

And that's part of our expansion plan.

And when we get down the road and we get those, other pods set up in the communities, you are likely to see those in fire stations and supported by your local firefighters more than likely.

- [Jackie] Also out of the governor's office this week is Gianforte's proposal for the state budget.

Gianforte's budget cuts proposed by the legislature and what will keep our eyes on this session is something we're gonna dig into more next week.

A goal of this show is to better acquaint you with your elected officials and other movers and shakers in the legislative process.

This week, I sat down with Montana's new secretary of state, Christi Jacobsen to talk about her goals with the job and overseeing Montana's election.

- I'm Christi Jacobsen and I'm the secretary of State of Montana.

- This was your first week.

How has it been going so far?

- It's been a phenomenal week.

I had inauguration on Monday at 10, and I was joined by my family and my executive team.

And we had a short ceremony in the Supreme Court chambers.

It's been live-streamed on Facebook if anybody wants to check it out.

And I've met with the governor and I've also met with the leadership in both the house and the Senate.

And we did a strategic planning, our team did a strategic planning session today and we are ready to roll.

- All right.

So what are some of your priorities and plans coming into this position?

- So we're gonna focus on some legislation that supports the integrity of elections.

We had a record turnout in our 2020 election.

We had 82% of Montanans participating and registered voters.

And we even had one county, Flathead County that had 92% turnout, which is just incredible to me.

So high voter turnout and we'll have some legislation that we're gonna be sponsoring that will protect the integrity of elections around accountability, transparency.

I think our state is the model for the rest of the country and we hold the bar very high.

We do have some room for improvement on just strengthening the integrity of our elections, and that's what I'm here to do.

I also look forward to partnering with the business community and supporting any legislation that helps businesses get up and running and stay running.

And just looking forward to partnering with the business community as well.

- Are there any issues you've seen already in Montana's election system when it comes to security or verifying ballots that you would specifically like to target or are you concerned about right now?

- What we do well in Montana, and this is a message I'd like to get out to all Montanans, we do not use the Dominion as a vendor.

That's a question that I get asked a lot by our constituents and the vendor we use is ES&S.

And when we certify the tabulating equipment, it's a public event, it has complete transparency, accountability.

The public's invited, all of the partners are invited to show up, test it, ask questions and make sure that the equipment that we're using has been properly vetted.

And so the equipment we use for tabulating ES&S it's not Dominion.

Another thing that we do well in Montana, we have a paper trail of ballots, and we also do an audit of the election after the election.

So those are some very strong components of the integrity of elections.

And looking forward, I ran this last year on supporting voter identification.

That's a position I'll continue with.

Opposing automatic online voter registration, that's something I'll continue to oppose.

Along the security, that is something that is also on everybody's mind.

We will continue to partner with Department of Homeland Security and basically with that partnership, they come in every other year and they try and penetrate our IT systems and they have been unsuccessful in having any ability to do that, but we will continue to monitor and make sure that we have a high degree of integrity in our IT systems around elections.

A big initiative that I have and we'll be partnering with our counties and it's already been underway, but launching our IT system, our election IT system, and replacing a 20 year old system that has become vulnerable with age, 20 years, it's time to be replaced.

And so that's something that all hands on deck and we'll be working for in the next year.

- And I have to ask, as we're speaking right now, the Capitol in Washington D.C. is on lockdown as protesters have stormed the building over election results.

Do you have any response to that?

- Well, in Montana, we hold the bar very high and I think the rest of the country could look at Montana as the model for how to conduct elections.

We had, again, a very high turnout.

We have a high degree of integrity in our election systems.

Montana takes voting very serious and Montanans love to exercise their vote.

They're very educated and every community I've been to in the state, great questions being asked, Montanans hold their elected officials very accountable.

And again, I just think Montana is so very special and the rest of the country can learn from what we do here in Montana.

- All right.

And Montana conducted a mail ballot election, an opt-in mail ballot election for both the primary and the general election this year.

And it seemed to work well, we had a huge voter turnout.

And I heard from individual clerk and recorders that they liked that process.

Will you continue mail ballot elections or will you explore those in the future?

- The intention of going to an all mail ballot was to keep everybody safe and the local elections, that was something that was decided at the local level.

And it worked well for some of the, for all the counties.

We had a lot of good feedback after the election, again, high turnout.

We did have some long lines of people standing in line to register to vote on election day.

And I think there's some improvements we can do around that.

It happened to be a beautiful fall day.

And so it was not as inconvenient for people to stand in line, but going into the future, I think same day voter registration is something that needs to be looked at and potentially changed.

As far as the all mail ballot, that is something that has to be vetted through the legislature and the governor.

And with my input and I have great partnerships with the legislature and the governor, there's 30% of Montanans that like to show up and vote in person, and I will continue to support the voters that like to show up and vote in person.

- All right and secretary of state races do gain a lot of attention (indistinct) has in the last three months, do you feel a little bit more on the radar or under the finger of the public, or are you feeling a bit more pressure after our general election in the type of position you just were sworn into?

- Absolutely.

This is a very important constitutionally held office leading our elections and the State of Montana, it's a very important role.

And it's something that I, a role that we'll continue to have complete scrutiny.

And my goal is to have complete transparency and accountability and strengthening the integrity of elections going forward.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you so much.

- That's all the time we have today.

Join me next time on The Rundown with Jackie Coffin Capitol Report airing weekly on Sundays and Mondays here on Montana PBS.

You can also get in touch with me at jackie@montanapbs.org.

I'll see you next time in Helena.

The rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans.