Missoula Needs More Election Judges to Prevent Long Lines in November

The Missoula County Elections office begins training election judges this month, the problem is that there aren’t enough people signed up to be election judges.

"If we can get anywhere between 750 and 800 judges, that will help me sleep better at night," said Missoula County Elections Administrator Rebecca Connors. "That will make sure that our polling places are staffed and that we have enough support staff at our fairground location to help tabulate ballots and helping traffic flow, because we get hit really hard with same-day voter registration here in Missoula County."

Currently, only about 580 have signed up, and the elections office is worried there may be long wait lines if more volunteers aren’t available.

"In 2012, I think we recruited around our goal of 500 election judges, and that was when we had four hour waiting times at the fairgrounds," Connors said. "We really needed to pull more resources, so our demand for election judges has increased, but number of people stepping up to be election judges has decreased."

People interested in becoming election judges can call the elections office at 258-4751 or go to missoulaelectionjudge.com to find out more.