MISSOULA — Voters are continuing to line up at the Missoula County Elections Center to cast their votes in Tuesday’s election.
The wait time late this afternoon was around two hours for people who wanted to vote in person.
Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman reports that over 69,000 ballots have been accepted in Missoula County with over 51,000 of those already counted. The county issued over 85,000 ballots for Tuesday’s election with Seaman saying that so far they are seeing an 86.89% return rate on the ballots.
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An additional 487 new voters have registered on Tuesday as well.
Seaman gave kudos to the county voters for returning ballots at such a high rate as Election Day winds down.
"So, we’re really getting in a ton of ballots and another great number is that those issued ballots out there. We have less than 8,000 ballots that have been issued out to voters that are still waiting to come back into our office,” he said. “So huge hats off to Missoula County voters for doing their due diligence and getting those ballots in."
Seaman said voters have been understanding of the long wait times that began at 6 a.m. and that overall, things have gone smoothly. He added that they are happy to serve anyone who is in line by 8 p.m., or who fills out a ballot and drops it off before 8 p.m.
In an effort to ease congestion at the election headquarters, voters can park at McCormick Park in downtown Missoula where a shuttle will run every 15 minutes to the Elections Center. The shuttle -- which will be running until midnight -- is being provided by ASUM Transportation.
There are also 11 ballot drop-off locations in Missoula County that will be open until 8 p.m.
Ballots can be dropped off at the following locations:
- Clearwater Credit Union (Reserve St.)
- Clinton School Annex
- Missoula County Fairgrounds
- Frenchtown Fire Station
- Lolo Elementary School
- McCormick Park
- Missoula Early Learning Center (Cold Springs)
- Potomac Greenough Community Center
- Seeley Lake Elementary School
- Spring Meadows Fire Station
- University of Montana (Adams Center)
- information from Jack Ginsburg, Melissa Rafferty and Mark Thorsell included in this report
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