Human Rights Bureau finds SOS Jacobsen discriminated against former county election official

An investigation conducted by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry Human Rights Bureau has concluded that an email sent by Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen to the Cascade County Commission during the hiring process for a new election administrator amounts to unlawful discrimination.

Jacobsen’s email, sent on Feb. 14, asked the commission not to hire Rina Fontana Moore or a member of her administration for the position. Moore had previously been Cascade County’s Clerk and Recorder for 16 years, a position that had overseen the election department.

According to an Oct. 8 report obtained by the Daily Montanan, the Bureau looked into whether Jacobsen attempted to “aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce” Cascade County into not hiring Moore because she is a Democrat, and ultimately concluded that the email “sought to dissuade the hiring panel from hiring Moore based on her political belief.”

The Secretary of State’s office did not respond to requests for comment by the time this article was published.



https://dailymontanan.com/2024/11/27/human-rights-bureau-finds-sos-jacobsen-discriminated-against-former-county-election-official/