absentee ballots

The University of Montana’s Department of Public Administration and Policy, in conjunction with the Missoula County Elections office recently asked nearly 700 Missoula County residents, “Are you confident Missoula County is free of voter fraud?”

There seems to be some confusion over the two different kinds of ballots that will be used in the all mail general election in November; absentee ballots and mail-in ballots.

Commission chair Rep. Wendy McKamey of Great Falls asked if there was anything the committee could do as clerks face a presidential election year that will likely have a large turnout.

After the incident in Bozeman yesterday in which Republican candidate Greg Gianforte was cited for assaulting a reporter, those who wanted to change their absentee ballot are too late.

44 percent of the absentee voters in Missoula have already cast their ballots in the special federal election to fill the seat vacated when Ryan Zinke was named Secretary of the Interior.

Missoula boasted over 75 percent voter turnout in the November 2016 Presidential election, just one of the many facts released by the City-County Elections Office on Wednesday afternoon.

Missoula produced a heavy turnout at the polls for Tuesday's Presidential election, one that saw the Big Sky state turn red for Trump, Zinke and a host of other statewide races, despite the heavy local Democratic voting population.

Elections Administrator Rebecca Connors began her day at about 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday, and plans to be going strong through about 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

The long haul to election day is almost over. The polls will be open on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m.

Absentee balloting can be a good indicator of voter turnout, and more than half of the 63,000 absentee ballots mailed in Yellowstone County already have been tallied and returned.  Bret Rutherford, the county’s election administrator, told county commissioners that as of Tuesday, 33,000 of the ballots, or about 55 percent, had been returned for processing...