Election advisory committee seeks county support for nonpartisan civic education videos ahead of municipal primary

The Election Advisory Committee asked the Missoula County Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 6 to partner on a nonpartisan, short-form digital civic education initiative intended to increase voter understanding and participation in school, special district and municipal elections.

David Lee, Election Advisory Committee representative, said turnout for local races lags turnout in federal general elections by about 40 percentage points. "We're seeing about a 40% difference between those 2 turnouts, and we think that we can kinda we can close that gap a little bit," Lee said, describing the committee's proposal to produce interviews and short explainer videos about what local offices do, who serves in them and why those roles matter.

Lee said the first round of content would focus on municipal roles — mayor, city council and municipal judges — and would be distributed using existing election office platforms to minimize cost and staff workload. The committee hopes to have materials available in mid-August to support the municipal primary currently scheduled for Sept. 9.

Several commissioners and attendees voiced support for the approach. "I really like the ... interviewing people who work in these positions and having them talk about the impact," one commissioner said, noting that local voters often know candidates personally and might respond to trusted voices. Griffin Smith, who asked whether the project would produce candidate-specific videos, was told the effort would remain nonpartisan and instead use civic educators and subject-matter experts for the initial round.

Lee said the initiative is intended as a narrow educational program, not an advocacy campaign. "The initiative includes short form nonpartisan digital content such as interviews with members of the community serving in elected roles and civic educators highlighting those 3 things that we wanted to address," he said. He listed possible contributors including Dan Clark from the Local Government Center and former city attorney staffer Anne Conley as civic educators who could help explain municipal functions.

The transcript shows the committee expects to leverage existing county platforms, keep costs low, and use the first round as a template that could be shared with other counties. The committee also noted a concurrent community council election in West Valley scheduled for May and said subsequent rounds could explain service on community councils, water and sewer district boards, and fire district director roles.

No formal county action or funding request was recorded at the meeting; commissioners signaled informal support and encouraged the committee to move forward and coordinate with county staff and local media partners. The transcript does not list a formal project budget, a procurement plan, or final content approvals.