The voting center in Missoula is preparing for Election Day

MISSOULA, Mont — With less than a month until Election Day, NBC Montana examines what voters can expect at the Missoula County Voting Center on Election Day evening.

“We need over 600 Missoula County residents to run this election,” said Bradley Seaman, Missoula County elections administrator.

November 5th is Election Day and the voting center has been preparing since January.

Staff and volunteers will spend the day assisting voters with post-registration and processing mail-in ballots.

“There will be a flurry of activity in this room, tallying the ballots and announcing the final results. These final results cannot be available until every voter in the county has voted,” Seaman said.

Seaman says the prep work began months ago, but right now they’re busy issuing and accepting mail-in ballots, voters coming in to cast ballots, and even people registering to receive new ballots.

“Each ballot is checked for signature and then goes through multiple checks to confirm that the ballot has been recorded in the system, is present, that there is only one ballot in it and that the ballot is for this election.”, explains Seaman.

On election night, you can view the updated election numbers on the NBC Montana website. Once the first numbers are released, Seaman says they will be updated every three hours until all votes are counted.

Seaman has one final piece of advice for voters: “Don’t wait. Make an informed decision, but the longer you wait before Election Day, the more hurdles and obstacles you will encounter.”