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HELENA, Mont. — Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and the Montana Election Team are celebrating a successful election after thousands of Montanans cast their votes to elect local leaders and decide local issues.
“Thank you to all of our Montana voters who ensured their voices were heard in these elections. The Montana Election Team is honored to serve you,” said Secretary Jacobsen. “Congratulations to the successful candidates across the state, and thank you to all for stepping up to serve our Treasure State communities.”
More than 180,000 Montanans participated in Tuesday’s elections, selecting local leaders in races for mayor, city commission, and more. Statewide, voter turnout was roughly 50 percent, indicating strong interest in the municipal elections.
This election cycle was the first conducted with new election laws, including House Bill 719. Voters provided their signature, the date, and their year of birth on the affirmation envelope, allowing election officials to efficiently and securely verify each voter. Several county election officials praised its implementation and successful impact.
“I want to share how helpful the addition of the birth year to the affirmation envelopes has been,” stated one Election Administrator. “It has significantly improved our ability to verify signatures, especially for individuals with identical or similar names, as it eliminates the need to manually differentiate between them.”
“This helps us when we are checking voter status. We have households that have three people with the same name. When we are checking ballots to ensure no one is voting more than once, having the birth year will be very helpful,” added another.
With voters providing their signatures and years of birth, this was the first election during Secretary Jacobsen’s two terms in which no voter had reported a violation of someone else voting on their behalf.
The inclusion of a voter’s year of birth on the affirmation envelope proved to be significant in multiple instances. One western Montana voter was able to correct a county error on their voter registration information thanks to the birth year requirement. In another example, one returned ballot was rejected due to an incorrect/missing birth year, and a family member indicated that the voter could not possibly have been the one who cast the ballot, stopping a potentially fraudulent ballot from being counted.
Despite several misleading reports in the weeks leading up to the election, Montana voters successfully cast their ballots across the state. As of Wednesday afternoon, only one percent of ballots had been rejected due to an incorrect or missing birth year, a percentage that may decrease further as any voter with a rejected ballot has until 5 p.m. today to fix it. Voters who choose to resolve a rejected ballot by mail can do so, as long as their mailing is postmarked by 5 p.m. today.
Several voters had already resolved their ballots by Wednesday morning.
“State and local election officials remind Montana voters that they can ensure their ballot was accepted by visiting https://voterportal.mt.gov and utilizing the ‘Track My Ballot’ feature,” said Secretary Jacobsen. “Resolving a rejected ballot is simple, and the Montana Election Team wants to ensure every voice is heard. Thanks for voting, Montana!”
Montana voters can resolve their ballot by completing the form found at VoteMT.gov/resolve-my-ballot, providing the required information, and returning it to their county election official or the Secretary of State’s Office (email soselections@mt.gov).