Kamala Harris back on Montana’s overseas ballot

The electronic system used by Montana’s overseas and military voters to cast their ballots in home elections reportedly omitted Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ name Friday from those digital ballots — a situation Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen says has since been resolved.

The error was first reported by the Daily Inter Lake, which included an account by a Montana voter living in the United Kingdom who said Harris’ name was absent from his ballot when he accessed it through the Electronic Absentee System. In an email exchange with Montana Free Press Monday, Jacobsen’s office confirmed the report referenced in the article of a ballot “not displaying properly” through the system.

“The system was taken offline in the morning and was back online in the afternoon,” spokesperson Richie Melby wrote, adding that “the potentially impacted [overseas] voter who submitted a ballot has since been contacted, and no further action is required.”

Melby’s response expanded on information Jacobsen’s office shared in a press release Monday morning, which did not reference any specific error or describe what the office and its vendor were troubleshooting when the system temporarily went offline. In the release, Jacobsen’s office argued that, “contrary to egregious misinformation campaigns circulating online,” no candidate names had been left off Montana’s 2024 general election ballot.

“No ballots were affected, including those that will be sent to registered absentee voters and those that will be presented to voters at the polling place on Election Day,” the release read, adding that Jacobsen’s office “appreciates the vendor’s quick troubleshooting and resolution.”

Jacobsen, a Republican, was first elected to the office in 2020 after previously serving as deputy secretary under her predecessor Corey Stapleton. Jacobsen is running for reelection this fall against Democrat Jesse Mullen, founder of the Mullen Newspaper Company, and Libertarian John Lamb, who ran unsuccessfully for Montana’s western U.S. House district seat in 2022. Mullen released his own response to the situation involving the Electronic Absentee System Monday, calling the reported omission of a candidate’s name a “gross error.”

“This newly discovered lack of oversight goes beyond standard party politics and shows an entirely unacceptable disregard for her office’s duties,” Mullen said in reference to his incumbent opponent. “I ask that Secretary Jacobsen provide a public explanation of how this error happened, whether or not processes are being followed to prevent it from happening in future elections, and proof that those processes were followed in prior elections.”

The error, which sparked criticism on social media and in reader emails to MTFP over the weekend, briefly impacted a longstanding system that enables eligible Montanans living or serving overseas to cast ballots in their home districts’ elections. Under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act, those eligible individuals include active-duty members of U.S. armed services branches and their spouses, and members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to Missoula County Election Administrator Bradley Seaman, the Electronic Absentee System has typically given overseas voters the option to cast their ballots digitally, to receive and return an official absentee ballot by mail, or to print a PDF of their ballot and return it via mail or fax. He said any non-standard ballots returned by those voters are duplicated onto a standard ballot at the county level by a committee of three election judges and then processed the same as ballots cast in person or by other absentee voters. 

Seaman further noted that for the first time this year, Montana’s new state election software gave county elections offices the option to automate emails to military and overseas voters containing a link to the Electronic Absentee System.

“Some counties used this in the primary, others still chose to generate the fillable PDF [ballots],” Seaman said. “Missoula County used the new system in the primary, and it worked pretty well.”

Seaman added that none of the more than 500 overseas ballots sent by Missoula County Friday were impacted by the Friday error, as his office had not sent the automated emails until after the system was taken offline. Ravalli County Clerk and Recorder Regina Plettenberg told MTFP her office also did not receive any ballots that were completed prior to the system temporarily going dark.

In emails with MTFP, Chester native Sara Gunderson said she first heard about the situation with the Electronic Absentee System on Monday via TikTok. A registered voter in Liberty County currently working as a missionary in the Philippines, Gunderson wrote that she planned to vote electronically in Montana’s upcoming general election but is waiting to access the system until she hears that any problems have been corrected. As of Monday afternoon Mountain Time, Gunderson said she had received no communication from the secretary of state’s office about the situation.

“I started voting electronically in 2016,” Gunderson wrote. “The only problem I’ve encountered so far has been changes made to the process that have to be navigated each election and the occasional difficulty in reading pins. (Is that a 1, l, or capital I?). This is the first time there has been a problem with the ballot.”

Jacobsen’s office did not answer questions regarding how many electronic ballots were impacted by the error or how many active military and overseas voters Montana has on its voter rolls. However, Melby did write that 350 eligible voters utilized the Electronic Absentee System to cast their ballots in the 2024 primary election in June.