Elections Office Issues Reminder About Envelope Birth Year Requirement
Posted on October 21, 2025
The Missoula County Elections Office is reminding voters that, due to a new state law, they must write their birth year on their mail ballot envelope before mailing it or returning it to the Elections Office. To comply with this new law, staff are having to reject a higher number of ballots than usual for the Nov. 4 election because the envelopes do not include the birth year.
"So far, we’ve had to reject nearly 160 ballots that didn’t have the voter's birth year or signature written on them," said Bradley Seaman, elections administrator. "For comparison, that's more than 10 times the number of rejected ballots than we had at this point in the September primary, before the law went into effect."
The new law stems from House Bill 719, which the 2025 Legislature passed. It went into effect Oct. 1, so this is the first election in which voters must follow the new requirement. A ballot will be rejected if it does not include both the voter’s signature and birth year.
When a ballot is rejected, staff call or email the voter so they can resolve the issue, if the office has their phone number or email address. A letter is also sent to each voter with a rejected ballot. Voters have until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, to correct their rejected ballot by visiting the Elections Office. The office is located at 140 N. Russell St. in Missoula and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The best way to for voters to verify that their ballot has been accepted is to visit myvoterpagemt.com and click on "Track my Ballot."
Staff are also fielding a high volume of calls about the new requirement, but questions or feedback regarding this statewide change are best directed the Secretary of State’s Office at [email protected] or 406-444-9608.
If voters prefer to drop off their ballot in person, the Elections Office offers ballot drop-off inside Building B Monday through Friday during regular business hours. On Election Day, voters can drop off ballots between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. at one of the seven ballot drop locations throughout the county. A complete list of ballot drop locations is posted on the Current Election page at missoulavotes.com.
Previous Page