If you’ve moved in the last couple of years and/or are a procrastinator by nature, it is pretty easy to lose your right to vote by mail in Montana. And regaining that right can be a hassle as decribed in this article.
That is important because voting by mail and returning your ballot soon after you receive it is critical to the Democrat’s Get Out The Vote (GOTV) process during Federal elections. It helps if our local Elections Department and the Montana Secretary of State (MT SOS) office are run by competent and trustworthy Democrats, because elected officials who politicize either of those offices can effectively reduce the number of votes Democrat candidates receive by foiling the GOTV process.
Households that return ALL the mailed-out ballots received by household members as soon as possible benefit from not being bothered by Democrat canvassers during the GOTV period. Doing that also saves candidate resources by reducing the effort they must make in chasing after late ballots.
Losing Your Right to Vote by Mail
In Montana, the right to vote by mail can be lost (and the voter is put in the “inactive voter registration list”) if the voter does not vote in a previous Federal general election and both (1) the voter does not respond within 30 days to a notice mailed by the Gallatin County Elections Department to the voter’s address of record and (2) a second notice mailed to the voter’s address is returned to the Elections Department as undeliverable. (The voter is considered not to have voted if the voter’s ballot is not received by the Elections Department by 8 pm on election day, which is November 5 in 2024.)
An investigation into whether a voter has a right to vote by mail is also triggered when the Elections Department submits a list of voters’ addresses to the US Postal Service (which occurs every odd-numbered year) and the US Postal Service indicates that the voter’s address it has on record does not match the address the Elections Department has on record. At that point, the Elections Department mails up to two notices to the voter. If a reply is not received to either notice, the voter is put on the inactive list and will not receive a ballot in the mail for the next election.
The voter addresses confirmed by the above checks are the addresses to which absentee ballots are mailed. If a voter moves after the above checks are completed (which by law must be completed at least 90 days before the next Federal primary or general election), the voter’s ballot will be mailed to the incorrect address that is still on record at the Elections Department. Ballots are not forwarded by the US Postal Service, so an incorrectly addressed ballot is returned to the Elections Department as undeliverable.
If a voter’s mailed-out ballot is returned to the Elections Department as undeliverable, a forwardable notice is mailed to the voter that allows the voter to appear in person to either (1) fill out a form to update the voter’s address and receive a new absentee ballot if the voter moved to a new MT House district or (2) pick up the voter’s returned undeliverable ballot if the voter has not moved to a new MT House district and fill out a form to update the voter’s address to prevent the voter’s ballots being undeliverable in future elections.
How You Can Regain Your Right to Vote by Mail
So, a voter can lose the right to vote by mail and not know about it even after the Elections Department makes its best efforts to correct the situation. That is why it is important for voters to confirm that they are on the “active voter” list well before when the ballots are mailed out. This can be accomplished by either calling the Elections Department at 406-582-3060 or entering the voter’s first name, last name, and birthdate on the MT SOS “My Voter Information” web page at https://prodvoterportal.mt.gov/WhereToVote.aspx
Please confirm that your status is “active voter” right now!
If the call or My Voter Information web page reveals that the voter’s status is “inactive,” then a signed (and mailed, emailed, or faxed) new voter registration form including the voter’s correct address indicating that an absentee ballot is being requested must be received by the Elections Department more than 30 days prior to the next election day (during the regular registration period, which ends on October 7 in 2024). The forms are available on both the MT SOS website and on the Elections Department website. Be sure to request an Absentee Ballot on the form. (The email address of the Elections Department is gallatin.elections@gallatin.mt.gov )
If it is too late to mail, email, or fax the new voter registration form during the regular registration period (and it typically will be after an incorrectly addressed ballot is mailed out, which occurs less than 30 days before election day), then the voter must register during the late registration peirod and the voter must obtain a ballot from the Elections Department in person. (Signatures on all the election forms must be “wet” in that a stylus or track pad cannot be used to create the signature, but a signed document can be scanned or photocopied and the scan or photocopy emailed or faxed to the Elections Department.)
Why Voting by Mail is Important for Democrats
In the 2024 Federal general election, almost all ballots will be mailed out to voters on October 11, 2024, which is less than 30 days prior to the November 5, 2024, election day. If other voters become eligible for voting by mail, a supplemental mailing of ballots to those voters will occur on the next Monday. Returned ballots are scanned by the Elections Department when they are received from the voters.
In Federal general elections, for a small fee, candidates and political parties (and anyone else) can submit a form to the Elections Department to request that lists of voters in the district(s) of interest whose ballots have been received and accepted by the Elections Department be emailed to the requesters. The lists of voters who have already voted contain the name and address of the voter and are emailed out daily, but the lists do not reveal how the voters voted on the candidates or ballot issues.
Early voting by mail (via a mailed or absentee ballot) is a very important aspect of Democrat Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts in Federal general elections. After spending much of the summer confirming which voters have stated that they will vote for their candidate(s) or ballot issues, political parties, candidates and other advocates use the data to target their limited (mostly volunteer) resources to reach out during the GOTV period to voters who have not yet voted and encourage them to vote.
You can see why Democrats favor mail-in voting over election day voting. When a voter votes on election day or mails their ballot in at the last minute, there is simply not enough time (or resources) to reach out to voters who have not yet voted to encourage them to do so.
Why It Is Important That Democrats Manage the Voting Process
You can also see why Democrats prefer that competent fellow Democrats are elected both at the county elections official level and at the MT SOS level. The reason is that accuracy and speed are necessary components of those jobs. Having a county elections official or a MT SOS who intentionally works slowly during the GOTV phase of an election in reporting which voters have already voted (in order to deny Democrats timely data) can significantly hamper Democrat GOTV efforts. (Of course, since it is the Montana Legislature that passes and the Governor can veto the laws that control voting processes, it is important that Democrat legislators and a Democrat Governor be elected, too.)
Democrats volunteer to canvass both by telephone and by door knocking to confirm which voters are committed to vote for Democrats. The volunteers also encourage each voter to confirm that the county elections official has the voter’s correct address on file and knows that the voter wishes to vote by mail. Voters for Democrats are also encouraged to return their completed ballots early.
The Benefits to Democrats of Voting Early by Mail
Canvassing can be a frustrating activity because voters are often not available when the canvasser tries to reach them, so voter contact must be attempted over and over. Also, especially in college towns or seasonal tourist towns, voters move to different addresses before or during the canvassing season. A voter for which the party or candidate has no contact information cannot be encouraged to vote by mail and to mail in or hand in their filled-in ballots soon after they receive them in the mail from the county elections official.
Households in which all Democrat voters vote early by mail get an important benefit. After the parties and candidates learn that all voters in their target households have voted, no one will be bugging anyone in the household to return their ballot. And canvassers receive the benefit of not having to apologize (one more time) to voters in households of voters for Democrats in which one (or more) of them have not yet returned their ballot(s). (By the way, a Montana court has ruled that a law passed by a Republican-controlled Montana legislature prohibiting canvassers from hand-carrying completed and signed ballots to the Elections Department is unconstitutional. Once again, our wonderful Montana Constitution foils attempts by Republicans to limit voting in Montana.)