Missoula area school ballots are headed to mailboxes countywide, setting up five competitive school board elections and several levy requests for the May 7 election.
The county sent roughly 72,000 ballots to Missoula area residents on Wednesday. Election administrators said people should return the ballots in the mail by April 30 to make it back to the Missoula County Elections Center in time.
There is no in-person voting or polling stations for election day, the county said. Ballots will be accepted at the election center and other drop-off locations on May 7.
"We'd like to remind voters that there's a tight turnaround from when you receive your ballot to when it's due back to the election center," Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman said in a release. "Make a plan to return your ballot by mail using the prepaid envelope, or hand-deliver it to one of the many drop locations that will be open on Election Day around the county."
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All registered voters in areas with an election should receive a ballot. Some residents might not receive a ballot if there is no local election in the area, the county said.
School board elections will happen for MCPS elementary schools, Frenchtown Public Schools, Potomac School, Clinton School and Lolo School. The Missoulian has reached out to all candidates and will publish a question and answer series before the election.
Levy requests are set in nearly every school district, with some asks as little as $16,000, while other levies are asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Frenchtown Rural Fire District and the Missoula Rural Fire District will also have races on the May 7 ballot for board of trustee positions. Election officials said they wanted to clarify that those races are not related to the Missoula Fire Levy, which will be voted on in June.
Nate Evans Jr., David L. Glessner and Josh Hinrichs have filed for two board positions in Frenchtown.
John Murphy, Jeff Merritt, Scott Mylnechuk and Scott Belz have filed for two board positions at the Missoula Rural Fire District.
People who are interested in voting but are not registered can sign up at the county election center until noon on Monday, May 6.