Montana absentee voting system taken down after Harris left off of ballot

Unfortunately for the state of Montana, the start of the election season isn't going as planned, at least on the early voting front.

According to Newsweek, alarms were immediately sounded after it was quickly realized by voters that Vice President Kamala Harris had been left off of absentee voting ballots.

The chaos unfolded on Sept. 20, when a voter reported that Harris was not an option on the ballot.

The issue quickly forced the shutdown of the state's electronic absentee voter system, making for a chaotic, confusing start for many voters.

Newsweek noted:

According to the Daily Inter Lake, Max Himsl, a Montana voter living in the UK reported the issue when trying to fill out his ballot online. He reported it right away to the Flathead County Election Department.

That report set off a chain reaction that would have state officials scrambling to correct the mistake. Secretary Christi Jacobson, who runs Montana's Secretary of State office, took the system down.

Jacobson and her office insisted that the issue had only affected a small number of voters.

Newsweek noted:

They also reassured voters that this issue was just on electronic absentee ballots which are for members of the armed forces living abroad, spouses or dependents of members of the armed forces living abroad, U.S. citizens living abroad, and, per the Montana Secretary of State's website: "Other individuals meeting definitions of "absent uniformed services voter" and "overseas voter" in Montana law."

The Secretary of State's office then released a statement with an update on the situation.

"On Friday morning, our office received a report of a ballot not displaying properly for a UOCAVA voter [meaning eligible military and overseas citizens]," the statement read.

The statement added, "As mentioned, the system was taken offline in the morning for troubleshooting with the vendor, and it was back online in the afternoon."

Angry Harris voters had already expressed their frustrations with the error.

This is Montana GOP Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen. Her office just left Kamala Harris’s name off ballots sent to thousands of Montanans living abroad.

RETWEET if you think @SOSJacobsen should be investigated! pic.twitter.com/bNlrEPYl84

— Protect Kamala Harris ✊ (@DisavowTrump20) September 22, 2024

Montana SOS Jacobsen insisted that the election will not be impacted by the temporary glitch.