HAMILTON — Ravalli County Clerk and Recorder Regina Plettenberg says she's still recommending the county do all of its voting through the mail in November.
But she is giving county commissioners an additional option of having a consolidated, single place for voters who still want to vote in person.
Plettenberg, like the other elections administrators across Montana, is trying to find the safest way for voting to happen during the on-going pandemic this fall, trying to protect both poll workers and voters from COVID-19.
She's recommended the county follow the same system used in the June primary, with all voting through the mail. But at a public hearing last week, many people expressed concerns about ballot security, saying their "rights" as voters would be violated if they couldn't go to the polls.
Plettenberg is still recommending vote-by-mail as the preferred route. However, she tells MTN News she has come up with a "Plan B" which would allow for the operation of a single, consolidated polling place at the fairgrounds.
Commissioners will consider that idea Tuesday morning. Two-thirds of Ravalli County voters already send their ballots through the mail.
