MISSOULA – As Election Day approaches, it’s been a busy cycle for area election offices, with big new voter registration, absentee, and early voter turnout numbers.
Missoula County is no different, but there are some changes in store this year for voters to be aware of.
Things are picking up at the Missoula County Elections Office. With less than a week to go until the big day, more and more are filing in to get their voter registration and ballots in order.
Elections Administrator Dayna Causby says the number of new voters is also up.
“We’ve actually already doubled what we did in the primary,” Causby said. “So what we did on Saturday, we actually registered 783 people. Whether that be precinct to precinct moves, county to county or state to state.”
And with more voters comes more questions, and more misinformation in this high-stakes election. Causby encourages voters to get all information directly from them.
“If a voter has any questions we encourage them to come to the Elections Center. Get their information from the source. We always want to provide them with the most up-to-date information. There’s a lot of misinformation floating around from different groups out there. So we want people to visit us,” Causby said.
One change voters will notice this year is a new entrance to the building. Because of ongoing construction at the fairgrounds, there’s now a different entrance to get to the election building, which is clearly marked.
“And that’s unfortunate for our voters but that’s where we are in the process. So we encourage people to come in now. Ask us questions, give us a phone call, we’re happy to answer any question that a voter has,” Causby said.
The office has extended hours this week, and will be open until 6 p.m. through Friday- and will also be open from 12:00 to 4:00 on Saturday.
Drive through ballot drop off will be offered on Thursday and Friday from 10:00-6:00, and from 9:00 to 1:00 on Saturday.
A few poll places have been changed because of school construction, and you can find a list of those and answers to other questions here.
