Missoula County officials weren’t always sure there’d be enough election judges to help voters this busy election year. It turns out there should be plenty to go around.
Local elections administrator Rebecca Connors says over 800 judges have stepped up to help out. That’s about 170 more than were recruited for the 2014 election.
Connors says her office used a media blitz to reach out to the community for help.
"It’s a huge election year, we really need to have that support. We also needed to hit that number so that we can ensure we have enough staffing to be able to staff our polling places so we can keep them in everybody’s communities. We were able to hit that number and we’re very excited about that."
Montana’s most populous counties including Cascade and Yellowstone don’t always have enough election judges on hand. That means they have to consolidate the number of available polling places to adequately serve voters.
Missoula’s Rebecca Connors describes election judges as ‘customer service reps’ for local voters. Because there are plenty of local judges this year, she’s predicting shorter wait times during the primary and general elections.