Did You Know You Can Track Your Mail-In Ballot in Montana?

Early voting is the best. You get your ballot mailed to your house, you take a few minutes to fill it out, and then you drop it off and you're done! My ballot even came with an "I Voted" sticker in it for the required social media photo that came after (my girlfriend's did not come with a sticker, and she was very mad about it).

But, I'll be honest - I was a little nervous. Mostly because you hear these news stories all the time about ballots being rejected for something like a mismatched signature or you accidentally left a mark outside of the ovals you're supposed to fill in. I was pretty sure I had done everything correctly, but it felt so final once I dropped off my ballot and I wasn't sure if I could even see the status of my vote.

Turns out, I can! Montana is one of the states that actually allows you to track your mail-in ballot, whether you dropped it off at an elections center or sent it back in the mail. All you have to do is go to this link, fill out your full name and birthday, and it'll pull up all of your voter info - whether or not you're registered, whether you get an absentee ballot, all that stuff. And then, it goes into detail about your own ballot - when it was sent out, when they received it back, and whether or not it was accepted or rejected.

So luckily, I now know that my ballot was accepted, and I can rest easy. If you check it out and it turns out yours was rejected, contact the elections office here in Missoula to talk to them about getting a new ballot.