Voters in Missoula today dropped off their remaining ballots and stood in long lines to register and vote. MTPR’s Megan Myscofski talked to a few of them at the Missoula County Elections Office and the University of Montana’s ballot drop-off site.
Larissa Walker: Laryssa Walker and I'm a research associate here in Missoula. This is the only election center in Missoula County, so anybody who didn't get a mail in ballot have to come here right now. The line is just kind of weaving in and out of cars and along a busy street and then back into residential.
I'm just excited for all of the Democratic candidates. Raph Graybill. He's a fifth generation Montanan. And I'm born and raised Montana and he fights for our public lands, which I am definitely a big supporter of. So, I'm hoping that he wins this election.
I think things are a little split right now between Democrats and Republicans and we'll see what happens in this election. I'd definitely like to see people work across the aisle with each other. Definitely, I've watched all the debates. Look, the first one was a train wreck. The second one was interesting, I wish it wasn't, but at the same time, the third one was much more professional. Like we've seen in previous debates, more like the vice presidential debate.
Cam Humphrey: Cam Humphrey, I play football for the Griz. I just pulled up here to the Adams center right out front and they do a little drive by voting ballot drop off here and it was super convenient. And you know, it's nice to be out here voting on a nice sunny day.
Um, kind of right smack in the middle. I would like to see this country become more unified rather than separated, like we are now. I've watched the debates and that's about it. The first one kind of bummed me out a little bit. It was tough to watch, it seemed a little childish. The second one, however, I felt gave a little clearer insight into their philosophies as presidents. And I felt like I got a little more knowledge from the second one.
Carrie Pals [spelling?]: I'm over in East Missoula. I work right now, I just finished school. And so I do design and sales over at one of the furniture stores. I'm not thrilled about some of the candidates on either side and I don't like having to choose the lesser of two evils.
I really hope that the candidates this year really wake up and understand if they're a career politician, they need to get grounded with the people who are supporting them. I think our two candidates between Bullock and Danes is a no win. I would have liked to have seen somebody with some fresh insight, that's lived some life and had to pay taxes and struggled to get ahead.
I'm much more conservative. I don't like being taxed out of my home. People losing their businesses. I don't like us losing our livelihood. I understand the pandemic, but I also think for 80, 90 percent of the people we're losing so much and it's costing us way more than what a virus could do for some of us.
I guess the pandemic and how it has affected businesses, how it's affected what it's done for me is really, you know, financially put me into some really tough times where before things were going great. Yeah, I'd like the state to be opened back up and businesses to be able to run at their full capacity so that they can survive.
