HELENA- Montana residents will soon be receiving a correction to their official state voter information pamphlets.
Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton’s office produced 466,000 copies of the pamphlet, which includes information on voting, registration, and the four ballot measures voters will consider in the upcoming election.
The pamphlet includes the specific language of Initiatives 185 and 186 and Legislative Referendums 128 and 129. But the Secretary of State’s Office eventually discovered some information had been left out.
The ballot language should include underlines where a ballot measure would add words to existing state law, and strike-throughs where it would remove words. But in the text for I-185 and I-186, some of those markings weren’t included, so it wasn’t immediately clear what the measures would change.
Stapleton’s office is now mailing a postcard to voters, correcting the missing information. Voters should receive the addendum in the next few days.
The Secretary of State’s Office has also updated its digital copy of the voter information pamphlet, available on the agency’s website.
Christi Jacobsen, Stapleton’s chief of staff, said they printed 471,000 copies of the addendum, at a cost of just under $33,000.
Amber Conger, communications director for the Montana Department of Administration, said there will also be costs of about $28,000 for preparing the mailing and $204,000 for postage, bringing the total cost to about $265,000. She said the job was handled by an outside vendor based in Billings.
Jacobsen said the distribution costs were paid for by the Secretary of State’s Office.
- Reported by Jonathon Ambarian
