Can a Family Member Drop Off My Ballot
- Voting is most to begin in the Not bad Falls Metropolis Commission mail-ballot election
- For the kickoff time, only authorized persons tin drop off ballots for others
- A new law as well allows the Elections Part to brainstorm counting ballots earlier polls shut
Residents who deliver ballots to the election box on behalf of other voters volition exist required for the first time in the Nov. 5 municipal election in Great Falls to register with the Cascade Canton Elections Function every bit "authorized persons."
Pink ballot delivery registry forms for those who deliver upwards to six ballots for other voters are stuffed in the envelops of 28,000 ballots that the Elections Office plans to mail to Great Falls residents Monday for the all mail-ballot election.
"This is our commencement do run at it," said Rina Fontana Moore, Cascade Canton clerk and recorder, of the new registry that allows merely authorized persons to deliver ballots on behalf of others.
Another change debuting in this ballot, approved by the 2019 Legislature, is that Elections Office personnel will brainstorm counting ballots earlier polls are closed.
The aim is before elections results for candidates and the public and reasonable bedtimes for membranous-eyed elections workers.
"We worked in this office for 43 straight hours on this last ballot," Fontana Moore said. "With more absentee ballots and more processing time having to open the ballots and everything, in order to get the results out sooner to candidates and the voting public, they gave us time on the front end of the procedure. Because doing everything on election twenty-four hour period wasn't working anymore."
Vi candidates are running for two open Commission seats with the peak two vote-getters winning the positions.
The candidates for the two Commission seats are:
• Kim Rodriguez, 55, 821 29th Ave. Northward.East., possessor of Middle Beat CPR and First Help.
• Tracy Houck, 47, 1716 3rd Ave. Northward., a marketing and business organisation consultant, who currently holds one of the commission seats.
• Rick Tryon, 2709 1st Ave. North., 62, owner of a spider web development consulting company and a semi-professional musician who works part-time in information technology at Stray Moose Productions.
• Terry Thompson, 54, 317 34th Ave. N.Due east., CEO of the Great Falls Clan of Realtors.
• Bruce Pollington, 72, 3217 8th Ave. S, retired, former president of River's Edge Trail Foundation and quondam chair of Technical Advisory Group for the EPA Superfund Site at the former smelter.
• Jasmine Taylor, 30, 1440 8th Ave. N.Westward., a residential licensing surveyor for the land Section of Public Wellness and Human Services.
Mayor Bob Kelly is unopposed in his bid for re-election.
More:From park bail to promoting Not bad Falls to slaughter plant, city candidates quizzed on bug
The election is a mail-ballot election with residents receiving ballots in the mail with the opportunity to return them by mail service.
While the metropolis ballot is small compared to an ballot with state and national candidates on the election, the two big changes involving the registry and the counting of ballots will exist tested in in Cascade County for the first time.
Residents who evangelize a ballot for some other person, peradventure a family member or somebody they care for, must at present complete a "ballot collection registry grade" thanks to the Election Interference Prevention Human action (BIPA).
Past a lx percentage margin, voters approved the legislative referendum in the 2018 federal election.
State Sen. Albert Olszewski, R-Kalispell, concerned almost the vulnerability of some voters and elections security, sponsored a beak passed by the Legislature in 2017, and it was forwarded to voters in 2018.
Under the new law, ballots can only be picked up and dropped off by authorized persons including caregivers and family, and those authorized persons can driblet off a maximum of six ballots per election, Elections Supervisor Lynn Deroche said.
It'southward to prevent people from knocking on doors of strangers and collecting ballots, she said.
The new form requires information nearly the collector, such every bit their accost, and the voters from whom they nerveless ballots, such as their name and the relationship they accept with the collector.
BIPA rules do non apply for ballots returned by mail.
Yet, residents who drop off ballots on behalf of others at the Elections Office in the Courthouse Annex, or Exhibition Hall at Montana ExpoPark, must present the form to elections staff.
It will have a big impact in Cascade County because 60 percentage of post ballots are typically dropped off in person, Fontana Moore said.
The change will require the Elections Office to staff the election drib-off box in the hallway outside the Elections Role inside the Courthouse Addendum to ensure that the BIPA forms are filled out by people who are dropping off multiple ballots, Deroche said.
To keep that hallway ballot box staffed during business hours, Elections and Clerk and Recorder staff will take one-hour turns sitting in at hallway.
2 other ballot drop-off boxes, one located outside of the Annex, and a 2d inside the Courthouse Addendum near the Man Resources role, are existence shut down as a upshot of the new requirements.
"We don't have the money or the staff to manage these, especially this one," said Deroche, pointing to the street drib-off box, which had allowed residents to drop off ballots when the building was airtight.
Fontana Moore and Deroche aren't enthusiastic most the alter.
Near the only places Fontana Moore tin call back of in Nifty Falls where people submit ballots for other people include the Senior Centre or nursing homes.
A printout on the wall at the election drop-off box in the hallway at the Courthouse Annex says people wondering who to talk practice nigh getting the law inverse should contact their land representative or senator.
Whatever ballots delivered in backlog of half-dozen ballots may be assessed a $500 penalty per ballot although Fontana Moore notes county elections staff doesn't take the dominance to enforce the law.
The BIPA forms exercise need to be turned over the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.
A police passed by the 2019 Legislature besides allows elections offices to brainstorm opening and flattening postal service ballots up to three days prior to the election.
And counting tin begin the day before the ballot.
Previously, ballots couldn't be opened until election solar day.
The Elections Part is a fan of this legislation.
The alter was pushed by the Montana Association of Clerk and Recorders and Elections Administrators to speed up the processing of votes, Fontana Moore said.
Election Results still won't be released until after the polls close, which in the case of the city election is 8 p.g. November. v, Deroche said.
The Elections Role plans to begin opening and counting ballots on Mon, Nov. 4, the twenty-four hours before the ballot. Opening ballots sooner isn't necessary because information technology is a smaller election, Deroche said.
On ballot twenty-four hours, the Elections Part volition be staffing Exhibition Hall at Montana ExpoPark where residents can drop off ballots besides beginning at 7 a.k.
Voters who fabricated a error on their ballot, didn't receive a ballot or demand to annals to vote can vote at Exhibition Hall.
Call the Elections Function at 406-454-6803 for more information.
What'due south next
The Electric and Cherry Creek Radio are sponsoring a forum for Dandy Falls Urban center Commission candidates from 6:xxx p.m. to 8:30 p.one thousand. Thursday at Groovy Falls College MSU, 2100 16th Ave. South. The Cracking Falls Tribune will begin publishing question-and-reply profiles of the six candidates for City Commission on Thursday.
Source: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2019/10/16/dropping-off-ballots-great-falls-election-registration-required/3991257002/
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