MISSOULA — There are a couple of changes that voters need to be aware of for the upcoming Nov. 4, 2025, election.
“We know every vote matters, we've seen that every vote matters, and we just want to really make sure that voters are successful with that new year of birth requirement,” said Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman.
There are two changes to ballots this election in Missoula County. The first is a statewide change — the year of your birth must now be printed at the bottom of your ballot.
Watch to learn what you need to know about changes in the upcoming election:
“That's going to be the really critical thing. If you just voted and you're like, year of birth, I don't remember that, go to MyVoterPageMT.com and you'll see it say accepted or you may see it say rejected and that means in your mailbox, you probably have a letter from us,” said Seaman.
Besides the year of birth requirement, Missoula County ballot envelopes will also no longer cover your signature. This does not affect how you fill out your ballot; however, voters may notice the change.
The Missoula County Elections Office has been diligent in resolving rejected ballots.
“Some rough numbers from [Wednesday] morning — we had about 750 rejected ballots. It was 744, and that number is changing constantly," Seaman told MTN. "And out of those, I'm really proud of the hard work of our team; we've been able to resolve 244."
Voters who have had ballots rejected can resolve the issue by using a form that's sent by the elections office via email and in the mail, with a copy of your ID. One important note is that the form must be printed out if you intend to resolve the rejection digitally. Once the physical form is filled out, you must take a picture of the form, along with your ID, and send it back.
“I'm going to email it to you, you're going to get home, you're going to print it then you go on your phone and you take a picture of your ID and the form and email it back to us,” explained Seaman.
Postmarks do matter for resolving a rejected ballot, notably.
“[Until] 5 p.m. the day following the election, we can resolve a rejected ballot. There was some information out on the internet that was a little bit confusing. We're going to count those on the Monday following, but it's required that we have it resolved in person by 5 p.m. and this is one of those very few areas where a postmark applies," Seaman explained. "So if you were in Condon and you said, ok, great, I'm going to run to the post office and I'm going to get a copy of my ID and send that in, that postmark is going to count."
Another key point is that you can either void your rejected ballot and fill out a new one, a process which can be done in person or over the phone when the elections office contacts you.
Voters with questions about the status of their ballot can visit MyVoterPageMT.com or contact the Missoula County Elections Office at 406-258-4751.
