Special Ballot Team Sent to Hospital to Help Missoula Mom Vote After Giving Birth

Little Nevaeh Pederson came into the world a few days early, leaving her mom Danelle in a hospital bed on Election Day. It seemed that Danelle’s plan of voting at the polls was ruined, but her mother-in-law Sally Peterson was determined to find a way that she could vote.

"I was thinking about how sad it was that my daughter-in-law couldn't get to the polls because she had had a baby the night before," Peterson said. "I thought, I wonder if there is any way that someone could deliver her a ballot. A kind person at my polling place said 'let's investigate that' and he made the phone call for me."

Everyone was pleased with the answer.

"They said 'yes,' that it was possible," Peterson said. "They said they would send two people out sometime during the day and they would make sure she had privacy while she voted and that her ballot would be handled with the utmost of care and that it would be counted."

Missoula County Elections administrator Rebecca Connors says Missoula has seven two-member absentee teams that are composed of members from separate parties. She says it seems that the teams are called out at least once or twice every election.

"We had, I think, at least two situations that I know of yesterday where an absentee team took a ballot out," Connors said. One went to an ICU unit, and another one went to either St.Pats or Community. They run a ballot out that person, that person then signs off on the form saying they were unable to appear at their polling place due to illness or an emergency, and then we get them taken care of."

After Danelle filled out her ballot it was placed in a locked bag and taken to the election’s office. Connors says that a security tracking log goes with the ballot to help ensure nothing is tampered with.