Montana voters head to polls Thursday
Sam Wilson Daily Inter Lake | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years AGO
Montana’s special election for its at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives takes place this Thursday, May 25. Polling places — and the Flathead County Election Office — will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Registered absentee voters who haven’t received a ballot must pick one up from the election office, 40 11th St. in Kalispell, by Wednesday at noon.
Voters who still need to register or update their registration can vote at the Flathead County Election office until the polls close May 25 at 8 p.m.
Flathead County Election Administrator Debbie Pierson said that along with the unusual voting day, many voters are still confused as to whether the election is mail-in ballot only, a proposal that was struck down by Montana’s Legislature earlier in the election cycle.
“It’s important to clarify that the polls are open on election day,” Pierson said. “There is a lot of misconception out there that this is a mail-ballot election.”
She also noted that absentee ballots sent by mail have to arrive at county election offices by May 25, meaning it’s too late for residents to vote by mail. Instead, they can turn them in at their polling place or the drop-boxes located outside the election office.
Although the special election takes place on a Thursday, Flathead County officials were able to secure all but one of the typical polling places on short notice. The exception is Precinct 19, which typically votes at the U.S. Army Reserve Building on U.S. 93. Those voters will instead cast their ballots at the Precinct 7 polling place at Hope Church, 436 Birch Grove Road in Kalispell.
For more information or to find a polling place, visit flathead.mt.gov/election or call 406-758-5535.
ARTICLES BY SAM WILSON DAILY INTER LAKE
No headline
Powerful, gusting winds fanned the flames of a new wildfire in a thickly wooded residential area west of Lakeside on Monday, pushing the fire across 80 acres and threatening an estimated 75 to 100 structures within a half-mile of the fire.
Bigfork area woman enjoys once-in-a-lifetime hunt
Five days into a soggy, luckless sheep hunt in the Missouri River Breaks last September, Jean Moore was not having a good time. At the age of 66, the life-long hunter and Swan Valley resident had spent the past three months training for the once-in-a-lifetime hunt, for which just one in every 285 applicants for a bighorn ram tag each year actually draws one.
Senate OKs proposal to allow guns in Capitol
HELENA — The Senate on Wednesday endorsed a Kalispell legislator’s proposal to allow lawmakers to carry concealed handguns in the Capitol. If it passes on a final vote Thursday, it then heads to the governor’s desk.