Commissioners approve mail-in ballot, pending Legislature’s decision
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POLSON — In anticipation that the state Legislature may allow counties to have mail-in ballots for the May 25 special election to fill the seat of former U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, the Lake County commissioners last week approved a resolution adopting such a balloting process.
The vote was 2-0 with Gale Decker absent. Allowing counties to conduct a mail-in ballot will save money. In the case of Lake County, Election Administrator Kathy Newgard said the savings would be about $39,000.
November’s general election cost the county $58,262 while a mail-in road levy ballot in 2015 cost $19,305, Newgard said.
SB 305, which would allow mail-in balloting, was approved 37-13 by the state Senate on Feb. 24. Sen. Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, voted for the bill, while Sens. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, and Albert Olszewski, R-Kalispell, opposed it.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the bill on Thursday, March 23.
Newgard encouraged locals who want a mail-in ballot to contact the 19 members of the House Judiciary Committee. Although no representatives whose districts represent Lake County are on the panel, a number come from Flathead, Missoula and Sanders counties, including Matt Regier, Zac Perry, Shane Morigeau, Nate McConnell, Ellie Hill Smith and Bob Brown.
Republican Greg Gianforte, a former Bozeman technology entrepreneur, Democrat Rob Quist, a musician from Creston, and Libertarian Mark Wicks, a rancher and writer from Inverness, were nominated at their respective party conventions for Montana’s lone U.S. House seat.
