BOZEMAN — As Election Day is rounding the corner on November 8, some Bozeman residents still have not received their absentee ballots through the mail. For people that have not received their ballot, it is important to know what other options there are to get their vote in.
Residents like Tammy Parrent are frustrated that they have not received their ballots through the mail and have gone into the USPS location on Baxter lane to see if they could find them.
“[I] asked if they could check for our ballots, she went to the back, she talked to people and looked around, and she came back with three pieces of junk mail and that’s all she could find that was ours,” says Parrent.
Without receiving ballots in the mail, voters like Kevin Kennedy are searching for other options on how to take care of this issue.
“I called the county elections office and I said get you guys have power says no. Once we get the ballots to the post office, it's out of our hands,” says Kennedy.
Election Admin and Clerk and Recorder Eric Semerad says his office has received a handful of calls regarding missing ballots from locals who live on rural routes. He shares several options people have to make sure their vote gets counted. One of them being replacement ballots.
“Replacement ballot request, and the quickest way to do that is just to come into the office here, and you can request that ballot anytime,” says Semerad.
Coming into the elections office at the county courthouse would be the quickest way to fix the issue of a missing ballot because you won't have to wait on it to be delivered through the mail, according to Semerad.
“Have a ballot remailed somebody, but then you're going through the post office again, you know, may have had the issue in the first place,” says Semerad.
Another option for a voter is to have someone else get your ballot for you.
“You can designate somebody to pick up your ballot," says Semerad, "So, with the form right on here, it allows you to designate another person to pick up your ballot and they would come and sign for your ballot and bring it to you.”
Semerad also believes there have been more complaints about not receiving ballots this year than in previous elections.
“It seems like it maybe happened a little bit. More this time around, and it's understandable with the staffing levels that the post office is having to deal with these days,” says Semerad.
So far the elections office has received about 11,672 absentee ballots as of Thursday afternoon. There are 75,000 registered voters in Gallatin County and 63,000 of them are absentees. Not every voter always gets their ballot.
"With every election, you send out 63,000 ballots. Some ballots just don't get there,” says Semerad.
Voters can also go to sos.mt.gov for more voter information.
