Absentee voting surge continues

Flathead County may end up with 16,000 early voters

The Daily Inter Lake

Early voting is progressing at an explosive pace in Flathead County, with 14,092 absentee-ballot requests processed as of Thursday.

"We'll probably get close to 16,000" requests for absentee ballots, county election manager Monica Eisenzimer told the county commissioners.

Eisenzimer expects absentee voting for the Nov. 4 election to exceed the June primary, when 37 percent of the votes were cast by absentee ballots. There currently are 49,000 active voters in Flathead County and a total of 58,104 registered voters.

Inactive voters - those who didn't vote in one of the last two general elections - can reactivate their status by going to the Election Department at the main courthouse in Kalispell. Voters who have moved out of a precinct may still vote at that precinct for one election, Eisenzimer said.

"We're moving toward a vote-by-mail" system, she said, "but a lot still needs to be done" before Flathead County could switch completely to mail-in voting for primary and general elections.

Eisenzimer has a crew of 27 workers lined up to open absentee ballots on Election Day, and more than 300 election judges will staff polling places across the county.

For the first time, poll runners will pick up absentee ballots periodically throughout the day at the precincts and bring them back to the courthouse to be counted. This should prevent a bottleneck after the polls close.

Oct. 31 is the last day absentee ballots will be mailed to voters, to allow time to have them returned by Nov. 4.

Absentee voters may vote in person at the Election Department or they may request that ballots be mailed to them. The ballots can be submitted in person, by mail or by fax.

Absentee voting at the Election Department closes at noon the day before the election. Any ballots mailed to voters must be returned by 8 p.m. Election Day.

The election department's Web site, at http://flathead.mt.gov/election, has been a great tool for voters to get information, and allows people to log in and find out where they're registered to vote, Eisenzimer said.

Election results, tallied five precincts at a time, also will be posted on the Web site on election night.