Why are we updating precincts and polling places?

Updating precincts and polling places follows the statewide redistricting process that draws new political boundaries. This happens every 10 years to ensure each house district has equal representation. Since the Montana House of Representatives currently has 100 representatives, each of the 100 districts must by divided evenly by population. Each senate district is composed of two contiguous house districts.

The state Legislature adopted the new house district lines earlier this year, and you can view them online. Then the county commissioners, in coordination with election administrators, preliminarily adopted new precinct boundaries in April based on the number of registered voters.

A precinct is a territorial unit for elections. This unit is a subsection of an approved Montana House District as established by the redistricting commission. A precinct is used by political parties to elect precinct committee members. Precincts are also a basis for a ballot style in a federal election, which allows for proper ballot rotation. Ballot rotation ensures that multiple candidates in the same race have their name listed at the top of the contest an equal number of times.

Precincts are required to be fully within the house district they were divided by, and each precinct cannot have more than 2,500 voters. There are limiting factors with the boundaries of house districts and numbers of voters in rural areas. Due to those factors, there will potentially be 64 precincts now, as opposed to 52 when last adopted in 2013, though the map is not final. View the proposed precincts and legislative districts map on www.MissoulaVotes.com and see how precincts may have shifted in name or boundary.