Mail-In Ballots Delivered for Missoula County School Elections

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Missoula County homeowners will be receiving mail-in ballots as soon as Monday as the County Elections Office has mailed nearly 76,000 ballots for the upcoming school and special district elections scheduled on May 6.

I spoke with Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman about the details.

Ballots are in the Mail for School and Special District Elections

“We are gearing up for our upcoming school and special district elections,” began Seaman. “Ballots are being mailed, and we have almost a county wide election. There are a few small districts, like the Florence Carlton district or the Arlee School District that get ballots from the other counties, but pretty much every voter in Missoula will be included in this election.”

Seaman provided more details about what will be in your mailbox this week.

“We'll be voting on a variety of issues, from school board trustees, to school mill levies, depending on the district you live in, as well as fire district trustees or a fire district mill levy,” he said. “There are quite a few different things, depending on where you live, to decide what you get to vote on. Ballots were just mailed out today, so voters should start seeing them as soon as this (Monday) afternoon.”

The Ballots Will Contain Mill Levy and Other Important Information

Seaman said there were some exceptions.

“Not every school district ran a levy,” he said. “For instance, we have districts like Sunset that are out there that are covered with School District One that didn't necessarily go to a levy or have a trustee election, but they're included in School District One, so almost every voter is going to get a ballot for this election.”

Seaman provided details on how voters can access details of the levies.

The County has Two Important Websites to Contact for the Election

“The amounts are set, and they're different for each different school district,” he said. “The best way you can find information is you can go to My Voter Page, Mt.com and look at a sample ballot, or you can check out Missoula votes.com and we've got them loaded to our website, so you can see that information there. Then the biggest thing is that in a school election, we're on tight deadlines, so when voters get these they're due back by May 6. Postmarks don't apply. The best thing you can do is take a look at it, make an informed decision, and mail it back in as soon as you can.”

Once again, Seaman encouraged voters to return their ballot envelops as soon as possible, and that polling places will not be open on Election Day, May 6.