Barcode Error Found On Thousands Of Montana Election Ballots Ahead Of May Mailout

Bozeman, Mont. — Gallatin County election workers have spent the last few days correcting a barcode misprint on thousands of ballots ahead of early May mailing deadlines. 

Gallatin County Election Officials say the problem affected ballot return envelopes for the upcoming primary and school and special district elections.  

Eric Semerad, the Gallatin County election administrator, explained when the issue came to light. 

“It was on Tuesday; we were notified by the post office that our ballot return envelopes were being directed to go to a different location, per the barcode that was on those envelopes,” Semerad said. “The barcode that’s on there is just a sample, and we needed to update that to be the barcode for our office, and that was not done.”  

Semerad says election workers have been central to the effort to fix the mistake at the Gallatin County Elections Office.  

One worker, Juneau Davis, described the hands-on process that is currently underway.  

“I am putting labels across the barcode on the ballots. There was a barcode inadvertently printed on the envelopes, and so we’re covering each barcode with a sticker, so there’s no confusion at the post office when they’re being returned to be sent back to the election office,” Davis said.  

Workers have been fixing the problem since it arose on Tuesday, on more than 77,000 school and special district election ballots and more than 60,000 primary election ballots. To fix the error, workers have been placing a white sticker over the mistaken barcode.  

Davis also stated how the job can be repetitive but still matters.  

“There’s a lot of different tasks, and every day is usually different, but it's usually some sort of sitting down paperwork. A little bit tedious but important,” Davis said.  

Despite the mix-up, officials say voters will still have time to receive their ballots.  

If voters have questions about the status of their ballot and where to find it, they can visit myvoterpagemt.com.  

School and special district ballots have already been mailed out back on April 17th, while primary election ballots are scheduled to go out to voters on May 8th. 

If you have any further questions about the upcoming elections, you can contact the Gallatin County Election Office, located at 311 W. Main Street in Bozeman.