Missoula Sees Door-to-Door Ballot Collectors As Election Nears

According to Missoula County Elections Administrator Rebecca Connors, many Missoulians have contacted her office to report that people are going door to door attempting to collect ballots from voters.

"On Monday Morning we received quite a few phone calls from activity that happened over the weekend of voters that had somebody come to their doorstep and ask if they could take their ballots to the elections office on their behalf," Connors said. "A lot of voters were uncomfortable with this, one voters even called police, they just felt like something was off."

Connors says she doesn't know which groups are behind the ballot collection effort, but says the tactic pops up primarily during presidential election years and is not illegal.

"Another person can deliver a ballot on behalf of another," Connors said. "Our office and the Secretary of State's office recommend that voters only give their ballots to someone they are comfortable with or trust or know. If some one still shows (on the sos.mt.gov My Voter Page) as an active/sent status and its getting close to election day, as long as we haven't received it, we can still issue them a replacement ballot, void the original, and get them new ones to make sure they have a vote to cast on election day."

Connors says if the outside envelope of a ballot is signed an sealed, individuals will get a call if the ballot appears to be tampered with. To check to see if ballots have gone missing, voters can look at their "my voter page" on the secretary of state's website to check their voting status.