MISSOULA – Missoula County Commissioners are suggesting a toned-down plan to close eight voting sites and move another from the county courthouse to the Missoula Public Library.
The move comes as the county looks for ways to respond to an increasing desire by voters to cast absentee ballots by mail, and the difficulty in finding trained election judges.
Absentee and mail-in voting “seems like it’s the answer to everyone’s complaint, doesn’t it?” said Missoula County Commissioner Jean Curtiss.
Commissioners originally suggested closing 13 polling places as part of a consolidation process but reduced that to eight after a public hearing where some residents objected to losing polling places that become social centers on election day.
“But we aren’t really social directors,” Curtiss said. “It really is a neat part of our heritage, I guess, but times are changing.”
The number of absentee ballots cast in November 2008 in Missoula County doubled that from the 2006 election.
Voters who prefer voting in person will still be able to cast ballots at the University Center and Franklin School in town, and the Evaro and Petty Creek fire stations polling places, which were targeted for closure in the original proposal by commissioners.
County officials say 318 election judges will be needed if the eight voting sites are closed, down from the current 467.
Vickie Zeier, the county’s election chief, has called a special meeting of the Election Advisory Committee for Jan. 7 to discuss the possible changes.
Commissioners have scheduled a hearing for Jan. 13 as part of their regular Wednesday public meeting.
Zeier said that, while finances aren’t the main factor toward the change in voting methods, the county would save nearly $16,000 if the eight voting sites are closed.