Election Integrity

The security and integrity of elections has been a hot topic across the country and in Montana. The Missoula County Elections Office takes the following steps to ensure accuracy and integrity when counting ballots for an election:

1. As ballots are returned to the Elections Office, the ballots are sorted by ballot style.

A ballot style is the unique combination of contests and candidates that will appear on a voter's ballot, depending on what jurisdictions they live in within the county.

2. Staff count them out into groups of 25 and rubber band them together as a bundle forContinue reading

1. As ballots are returned to the Elections Office, the ballots are sorted by ballot style.

A ballot style is the unique combination of contests and candidates that will appear on a voter's ballot, depending on what jurisdictions they live in within the county.

2. Staff count them out into groups of 25 and rubber band them together as a bundle for processing.

3. Staff scan the unique barcode on each affirmation envelope (the white envelope with the voter's signature) and mark the ballot as 'received' in the Secretary of State's voter database.

4. Staff verify the signature on the envelope by comparing it to the voter signature on file. If the signature on the affirmation envelope does not match the signature on file, staff contact the voter.

5. After verifying the signature on the affirmation envelope, staff print a report listing each ballot contained in the bundle of 25 ballots that has been received and signature-verified.

This is called a BP-34 report.
They attach that report to that bundle.
The ballots are still in both their blue secrecy envelope and white affirmation envelope at this time.

6. A team of two people compares the report information to the physical envelope to verify that all ballots listed on the report are accounted for. This is the first of several double-checks of the envelopes and ballots to ensure an accurate count.

7. After accounting for all accepted ballots, a team of two recounts out bundles of 25 and verifies each affirmation envelope is for the correct ballot style and records it on a reconciliation report.

8. The secrecy envelopes containing the ballots are removed from the affirmation envelopes to ensure voter confidentiality.

Affirmation envelopes are placed on a spindle to ensure that no secrecy envelope containing a ballot remains in the affirmation envelope. This is another physical double-check of the envelopes and ballots.
The empty affirmation envelopes are stored daily and sealed for records retention.
Envelopes with return postage and changes to voter mailing addresses are stored separately for processing.

9. Starting as early as the Thursday before the election, Elections Office staff start the process of removing the ballots from the secrecy envelopes. Working in teams of two using the report generated in Step 7, election judges confirm the number of secrecy envelopes matches the number on the reconciliation report and confirms that there is only one voted ballot and that it is the correct style and for the current election.

Mis-sorted or voided ballots are tracked on the accompanying report.
Ballots are sealed and securely stored under video surveillance for vote counting.

10. In the counting center, the ballots with accompanying reconciliation reports are counted by tabulation machines.

11. Staff confirm the number of ballots counted matches the number in the reconciliation report and signs the report.

12. These reports are totaled and compared to the machine-generated reports of the number of ballots received.

13. The results are presented to an independent board of canvassers at a public meeting to certify the election. In state and federal elections, results are then presented to the Secretary of State's Office for certification at the state level.

When the Elections Office reports the number of ballots accepted, it is not from a manual count, but a report generated by the Secretary of State's voter database, based on the unique barcodes scanned into the system.

In federal elections, a post-election audit is completed where the Secretary of State’s office randomly selects precincts and races for a hand recount to ensure that election tabulators functioned correctly.