Give a Day for Democracy: Become an Election Judge in Missoula County

2026 is a federal election year, and thousands of voters will cast their ballots by mail or at polling places across Missoula County for both the June primary and November general election. It takes more than 600 people to run these elections, and you could be a part of the action as an election judge! 

This week, the commissioners spoke with Bradley Seaman, elections administrator, about what election judges do (no robe or gavel required) and how residents can get involved.

Click here to sign up to be an election judge!

Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

Dave Strohmaier: [00:00:10] Well, welcome back to the agenda, everyone with your Missoula County Commissioners. I'm Dave Strohmaier and I'm here with my friend and fellow Commissioner Josh Slotnick. Commissioner Juanita Vero is out this week, but we are delighted to be joined today by Bradley Seaman, the elections administrator for Missoula County. Welcome, Bradley. Or should I say welcome back.

Bradley Seaman: [00:00:32] Well, yeah, thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it very much and excited to be here. Great.

Josh Slotnick: [00:00:36] Thanks a ton for joining us, Bradley. So you have mentioned this in the past when you visited us, but I think it's worth describing. You're all staff is a small decent size. And then that staff swells in numbers during election cycles. It gets really big. And a whole bunch of those folks are people who work short time as election judges or work at polling places. Can you describe the kind of numbers on that before we dive in on what those positions are.

Bradley Seaman: [00:01:00] Yeah, exactly. It takes a whole village to run an election. And as we look at it, we've got a core team of six full time staff. Okay.

Josh Slotnick: [00:01:07] Six, six full time folks.

Bradley Seaman: [00:01:09] Yeah. And we have, you know, what are you doing with your 20,000 voters this week? So in order to run an election with so many voters in Missoula County, almost 80,000 voters, we really rely on temporary staff, election judges to help make sure that elections are successful. And election judges, we need about 500.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:01:26] Holy smokes.

Josh Slotnick: [00:01:27] So staff goes from 6 to 506.

Bradley Seaman: [00:01:31] And extra.

Josh Slotnick: [00:01:32] People.

Bradley Seaman: [00:01:32] Who help in our.

Josh Slotnick: [00:01:33] Office. And there's.

Bradley Seaman: [00:01:34] More. So we'll really grow. We'll be upwards of 800 people involved in helping make sure the election is really successful this next year.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:01:41] So so talk about what an election judge is, because some folks might be visualizing someone in a black robe with a gavel. Gavel. Not that kind of judge.

Bradley Seaman: [00:01:51] No, we don't even provide any of those curly wigs. It's really the sort of training where we can get people in. This is the public face. When you think of elections and you think of going in to drop off your ballot. Those are our election judges. If you vote at a polling place and you go in and you get greeted by somebody who issues you a ballot. Those are our election judges on Election Day. The people who help us make sure that those thousands of ballots that come in the mail are opened, accounted for and processed are all our election judges. So there's a variety of different, really public facing options or kind of what we refer to as in the office, you know, helping make sure that those ballots are accounted for and processed correctly. So over 500 people coming in just to help make sure that your vote is counted. Successful election day.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:36] So how soon before an election do you need these folks in place?

Bradley Seaman: [00:02:40] So in order to have everybody recruited and trained, there's a few things that are required when you want to serve as an election statutorily required. Absolutely. And so some of those are your 18 years of age. You're a registered voter and that you go through a training from the elections administrator. And so in order to balance our incredibly heavy election schedule, we're recruiting people right now. Training is going to take place in March, and that's what will get you certified to be able to serve. And then we'll use, you know, a couple of dozen for a mail ballot election. So really a small number. But in June we'll have a polling place election. And then November will be the big election, the midterm election. So we're recruiting right now because our training runs throughout March to help get people ready to go. In April, we start on our school election and roll right into the June primary election.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:03:30] So are these election judge positions paid or volunteer or a combination of both?

Bradley Seaman: [00:03:36] It's really a great combination of both. I like to refer to this as paid public service. So election judges are paid at the current minimum wage. So it's not something that you're going to go home with a huge check for. But many of our judges really appreciate this. So you'll be paid for your training trainings around three hours for just your basic training coming up in March. And there's some additional training for people who'd like to serve in a little bit higher capacity. You'll also be paid for your service, and a lot of judges say they really appreciate getting a check right before Christmas, something that they can use to help supplement some gifts or, you know, just make it extra special. So it is paid. It's nothing that you're really going to break the bank with, but it's a great way to do public service and bring home a little check. We do have about 400 people who sign up to volunteer, and so out of this, we've got a variety of different people who volunteer.

Josh Slotnick: [00:04:25] Wow. So some people volunteer. Some people choose to get paid.

Bradley Seaman: [00:04:28] Exactly. So there's a great way we can get you and sign you up. We'll get you ready to be paid, but if you are interested in volunteering, we'll help you with that too.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:04:35] So how many folks have, at this moment in time, signed up to either volunteer or be election judges? And how many more election judges are you looking for?

Bradley Seaman: [00:04:45] So as of this morning, we had about 275 people signed up. So we're just over halfway there. Okay. Looking to get over 500 people signed up, recruited and trained by when. So this the goal is through March. Our training start at the beginning of March. On March 4th. But they run through towards the end of March to give people a variety of different days of the week, times of the day that work to help make sure that we're getting as many people trained as.

Josh Slotnick: [00:05:11] The next six, seven weeks or so. You're looking for another 250 plus, folks. Exactly.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:17] So if one of our listeners out there is saying, you know what, this this is, this is my deal, I want to get plugged in in this way. What would the next steps be for them?

Bradley Seaman: [00:05:27] So the best thing you can do is go to Missoula election. Com so Missoula election judge. Com that's our website. It'll bring you right to our sign up page. Where you go there you can see the available classes, the time that fits for you. And you can enter the information you need to get signed up for that. You can also call our office or give us an email at electionsinfo@missoulacounty.us Or call us (406) 258-4751.

Josh Slotnick: [00:05:56] So can you kind of walk us through what would a person's experience be? Let's say if they are an election judge or they're working in person at a polling place. Kind of walk us through what would a day look like?

Bradley Seaman: [00:06:06] Yeah, a day in the life of an election judge. And it starts early in the morning. The polling place is open at 7 a.m. and so with this, we really work hard to recruit enough judges that we can have people work a full day or a half day shift, because.

Josh Slotnick: [00:06:19] What's a what's a full day?

Bradley Seaman: [00:06:21] Our polling places start at 7 a.m.. You're going to get there at about 6:00 to help get everything set up, so that at 7 a.m., the first voter is ready to go. They close at 8 p.m. so then there's breakdown for like an hour after that. So you can imagine coming in at 6:00 and finishing by about 9:00.

Josh Slotnick: [00:06:38] What a monster day.

Bradley Seaman: [00:06:39] It's a really big day. And that's why we recruit so many judges, is so that we can set up kind of a split shift. Hey, I want to come in at six and finish at 130.

Josh Slotnick: [00:06:48] And then the next batch.

Bradley Seaman: [00:06:49] The next group come in at 130 and finish off later in Missoula. We're really unique.

Josh Slotnick: [00:06:54] We have many hands here.

Bradley Seaman: [00:06:55] Yeah, we recruit the most judges, we have the most polling locations, and it's because we asked our voters what they wanted and we're doing the best we can to meet them. They said they wanted community polling locations with their friends and neighbors there to serve them. And the community is coming together to help get these judges in.

Josh Slotnick: [00:07:10] So some folks get there at six after a setup. What are some of the things they would do?

Bradley Seaman: [00:07:15] All right. 7:00 hear ye, hear ye. The polls are now open and the flood of voters comes in the door. And you're going to be either checking in voters. Do you know your precinct? Do you know what table to go to? Commissioner, let's get you over there. It may be the person who's checking your ID, so we have a requirement to show an ID. You may be the person who's looking at the list of voters checking an ID. We also have people who account for those ballots throughout the day. So one voter came in, we issued one ballot. Election judges come through and help with depositing those ballots, reconciling at the end of the day, or helping voters who may need unique special circumstances. This might be something like curbside voting. So if you're a voter who's not able to get out of their vehicle, we can help you. And so that's some of that extra training we may go through to help make sure people are really successful. Now, other election judges may be helping in our counting center at a ballot drop off location. They may be helping deliver or pick up materials. We have a variety of different jobs, so it really varies from being in the polling places, helping set up and break down, and making sure voters are successful throughout the day to helping with the mail ballots in our counting center. These run all evening throughout the evening into the next day, so it's a really big job where we need multiple shifts to help make sure we get those counted, and then the great jobs of helping make sure that everything's set up and ready to go for those people who get there at 6 a.m..

Josh Slotnick: [00:08:40] So if, say, if I was at a polling place, how could I tell who's an election judge and who's just another voter?

Bradley Seaman: [00:08:46] Well, so as we go through this process, we do a couple of different things. We're going to go through our training and get everybody certified. And then at the polling locations, we specifically badge all of our election workers and use a really colorful Missoula votes lanyard that helps distinguish them from a crowd.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:09:01] Awesome. So so you won't have some random person saying deposit your ballot in a trash can. Where I was headed.

Josh Slotnick: [00:09:07] That's where I was headed.

Bradley Seaman: [00:09:08] No, we make sure they're all trained, badged and really well prepared for.

Josh Slotnick: [00:09:11] Who they are and they're approachable. We can go ask questions.

Bradley Seaman: [00:09:14] Absolutely. And we even go further. A manager or a chief election judge at that polling place is going to get an apron to help identify them, so that anybody in there knows the person who's in charge of that location.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:09:25] So Bradley staffing and making sure you have adequate numbers of election judges critical to the success of our elections here in Missoula County. Are there other things that you are working on you and your team are working on right now to prepare for the upcoming elections in 2026?

Bradley Seaman: [00:09:42] Absolutely. I mean, we work on elections throughout each cycle, each year. And one of the big things we're working on right now is making sure our polling places are set up and ready to go for voters. Come June and November. We have a couple of polling locations that are no longer able to serve, so we've been able to replace those. We'll be notifying voters on those, and then we're going to go and do Ada surveys of all of our different locations. Right now we're going through and there's been a few law changes. So we're updating our different law changes for our training. We're always really great. We're going to train all of our judges on the law as it currently stands. And in elections laws change regularly. So should something change between now and service on Election Day, we'll make sure we have a supplemental training in case one of the laws that's under legal review changes so that they're well prepared to help voters be successful. So right now we're looking at our polling locations, updating our training, and working on contingency plans to make sure everybody's set up for success.

Josh Slotnick: [00:10:37] So there was an article in the newspaper recently about new laws around checking citizenship. Does that have anything to do with work election judges do, or is this all done at a different level? Does this impact us locally at all?

Bradley Seaman: [00:10:50] So that's really going to be kind of work that the state does in coordination with the database. The biggest area where an election worker comes in is just making sure that the person's at the right location for election Day. And that's going to be a register or a list of voters with 20 different locations. You need to make sure you're at the right place to get the right ballot. And that's going to be the biggest area where election judges are critical in helping a voter be successful.

Josh Slotnick: [00:11:16] Let's say somebody goes to a polling place. Maybe they've been going to that polling place for a long time. Things have changed. They didn't know they walk in and they're not on the list. Would an election judge be able to tell them where they're supposed to go?

Bradley Seaman: [00:11:27] Absolutely.

Josh Slotnick: [00:11:28] That's great.

Bradley Seaman: [00:11:28] So they can look that voter up and say, hey, we don't see you in our register here, but.

Josh Slotnick: [00:11:33] You're supposed to go.

Bradley Seaman: [00:11:34] You're supposed to be at the library. Pop by over there. They'll get you taken care of. And one thing we see regularly is voters who may have missed updating their voter registration. So we've got a great law in Montana. You can always vote one last time at your old precinct. So if you moved, you were in the rattlesnake. Now you're on the north side. We can help make sure that you get to vote one last time up at the rattlesnake, get everything taken care of, and then update it for the next election.

Josh Slotnick: [00:11:58] Great.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:11:59] That's fantastic. Well, just to remind our our listeners one more time, if they are interested in becoming an election judge or finding out other information about elections, where would they go?

Bradley Seaman: [00:12:11] Go to Missoula election judge. That'll have all the info you need. We're excited to get you involved.

Josh Slotnick: [00:12:18] So I want to ask some personal stuff. Oh, boy.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:12:22] Josh is going deep today.

Josh Slotnick: [00:12:24] So person goes to college. There's all kinds of things you can study about. I spent a lot of time there myself as a teacher.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:12:30] And you would never know it.

Josh Slotnick: [00:12:31] You'd never know. Know the grammar, the grammar alone. I never saw a class in how do elections work? Or or a poster or a flier on a wall saying, hey, want to be an elections administrator? There are all kinds of things are interested in teaching art or think about engineering or. But never anything about elections as a career. And yet here you are, and you have a staff of professionals. And in my visits with you all, and in my time sitting on the EC Election Advisory Council, it's really obvious that managing elections is a trade. It's a giant logistics project management exercise. It's a trade like being a tax accountant or a plumber or something like that. So how does a person go from being a smart, well-educated human being like Bradley Seaman to being an elections administrator?

Bradley Seaman: [00:13:16] For me, it started in 2006. I went to school for political science, which fits really well, and I did a lot of work for what I refer to as groups that work in parallel campaigns or voter registration groups.

Josh Slotnick: [00:13:29] So on your own time, not in class, but like working with MontPIRG or something.

Bradley Seaman: [00:13:32] Yeah, like kind of after school. After I graduated, I did organizing work and did a lot of work in parallel. But to take it back to when I was in school, I was helping out on a campaign and I came by and dropped off some voter registration forms and I got a handout. It looks really similar to this handout right here.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:13:49] What are you showing us there Bradley?

Josh Slotnick: [00:13:51] It's a day for democracy. It says election judges needed for 2026.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:13:55] Okay.

Bradley Seaman: [00:13:55] And I said, well, you know, I'm really interested in signing up to be an election judge, but I'm a college kid, and it can be kind of hard to know what it looks like for that next cycle. It can be kind of hard to know what it looks like for the next.

Josh Slotnick: [00:14:07] You mean in terms of your own personal schedule?

Bradley Seaman: [00:14:09] Will I be here for.

Josh Slotnick: [00:14:10] The.

Bradley Seaman: [00:14:11] Next election coming up in November? And I couldn't say for sure because I was a college kid and they said, just sign up, take the training, and if you're available, we'd love to have you. So I first trained as an election judge in 2006, and I loved being able to serve in the polling place. It was a unique opportunity of working in a polling place in East Missoula, connecting with a community and really working closely here. And then it went through multiple different cycles. I eventually continued that work as an election judge, helped make some educational videos and got hired here.

Josh Slotnick: [00:14:44] What was your first job?

Bradley Seaman: [00:14:45] I was the election supervisor. And so this was my first time in this side of the table. A lot of time on the other side of the table, helping register voters and let them know what to do for Election Day. But then being on our side of helping encourage everybody to vote, you really jump into things. And there is a Montana code annotated our state laws, there's a handbook, but there's not an official training program. And when you ask other people how they got into this, many of them are elected and they run as a clerk and recorder, and elections is a portion of this job. Now, I was really fortunate to get to come in here under some amazing leadership. I've got to work under two different election administrators.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:24] So you got to see it done multiple ways.

Bradley Seaman: [00:15:26] And one of those great election administrators encouraged me to join a national training program.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:31] Ah.

Bradley Seaman: [00:15:32] And so there's a couple of different colleges. Auburn University is one of the very few colleges out there that has a training program in elections administration.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:41] And is it a hybrid thing? You didn't have to go to Auburn.

Bradley Seaman: [00:15:45] So through this program, certified elections registration, he.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:49] Shed his accent.

Bradley Seaman: [00:15:51] Dropped it right there. Um, we went through and as I got into that program, we went through and were able to take hybrid classes with professors from Auburn University and take them either online or I had a few opportunities to go to places like Phoenix Scottsdale and get to learn in person, as well as get to go to some other election offices, see how some of these other really large jurisdictions are doing it. As we bring this back to Montana, we're working hard to help professionalize our association and share this knowledge, and we're working hard to help grow this idea that, yes, this is a professional program. There should be training and certification. And as we get into this, we want to help make sure that we're getting professionals for this work. I feel really fortunate to get to work in Missoula County, where we made the decision to Into split our clerk and recorder from an elections administrator, which allows our county to search out professionals, recruit nationally, and hire the best person.

Josh Slotnick: [00:16:48] For the county is too big to have those offices combined.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:16:50] Well, I think I can speak for the commission. We're super proud of the work that our elections office does and has accomplished in really raising the bar here in the state of Montana and becoming, I think, the platinum standard for elections in Montana.

Josh Slotnick: [00:17:04] So over the last few years, we've seen kind of a cultural shift where people forever had kind of taken for granted our elections. And this shift has been towards more scrutiny. And your office has really responded with some great demonstrations of transparency and openness and education. Can you describe some of those efforts?

Bradley Seaman: [00:17:25] Absolutely. So our Elections Advisory Committee that you referenced that you serve as the commission member for. They came up with a really cool program of public tours to bring the public in, help show them this process, and really pull that curtain back. There's nothing in Missoula County elections that you can't come and observe. We pride ourselves in that level of transparency. And even more so, we went to the step of saying, we want to set up tours where you can come and see this process, where we know we'll be looking at signatures so you can see that happen. Specifically, that sort of transparency has been amazing. When we get our strongest critics in, they leave and they've said they feel more confident in the process after coming and seeing it. The other incredible way that we help people feel confident in the process is by serving as an election judge.

Josh Slotnick: [00:18:13] You get to be in it.

Bradley Seaman: [00:18:14] You get to be in there doing it. I've never had anybody say there's widespread voter fraud, and I know because I was there committing it. So if you come in and you get the opportunity to serve as an election judge, you can be a part of the process. You can see this firsthand, and you can have that confidence that you can share with somebody who says, well, hey, I've heard this news story or I'm confused about this. You can say, well, I don't know everywhere, but I know in Missoula County I know how we do it. And this is why I'm such a strong advocate. So serving as an election judge is an amazing way to help improve that transparency to great.

Josh Slotnick: [00:18:49] So if you're interested, this is a way to learn more and get involved and help all at the same time.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:18:54] And what's that website URL? One more time.

Bradley Seaman: [00:18:56] One more time. It's Missoula election judge. Com.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:19:00] So reasonable it is that that is rolls off the tongue. Yeah. Well, Bradley, one thing that we, uh, per tradition, like to do with our guests on this podcast is in this world where there's plenty to be less than inspired about. Try to tease out of our guests something that has inspired you as of late. It could be a book. It could be something related to the culture in your life or in our community. Any nuggets of wisdom for us today?

Bradley Seaman: [00:19:30] Well, I have two different things that have really been bringing me joy right now. One is appreciating what we have when we have it. I've been able to sneak in some bike rides in our 50 degree January weather.

Josh Slotnick: [00:19:41] Endless spring.

Bradley Seaman: [00:19:42] And should we get some snow in April? I'm going to look forward to skiing then too. And so I've really been appreciating that. And I got the silliest Christmas gift that I've absolutely been loving. It's an encyclopedia. Four volumes of Star Wars information. We've been reviewing our Star Wars movies, pausing them and digging out the encyclopedia to learn what that word truly means.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:09] And so Dave and I do this quite a bit, actually.

Bradley Seaman: [00:20:11] Yeah. You know, I mean, I've seen your notes in there.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:16] Wow.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:17] That's fantastic.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:18] Can you drop a few words on us?

Bradley Seaman: [00:20:19] So one of my favorite was that they had been talking about Grogans, and I had no idea what that was.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:25] Anybody can text email in if you know what a Grogan is. You get to be on this podcast.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:30] They complained about some hey, Josh, in our inbox. They complained about some potholes earlier today.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:37] The grogans?

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:37] The Grogans.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:38] Did. They're never satisfied.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:39] I know.

Bradley Seaman: [00:20:41] And so it's just.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:42] Who are the grogans?

Bradley Seaman: [00:20:43] Well, it was so great to go. And here's the best part. I didn't look it up yet. Oh, I haven't even made it to that.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:50] Okay, we need to have another episode follow up.

Bradley Seaman: [00:20:54] So just some really fun things. Just enjoying Montana for what we have and embracing those little bits of joy that I'm getting from my friends and family.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:21:02] Well, thanks for joining us today.

Bradley Seaman: [00:21:04] Really appreciate the opportunity to get to be in here. I love this portion of elections. This is where we get to bring the community in to be a part of this process. And this is where we get to support each other in a critical role.

Josh Slotnick: [00:21:17] I want to say thanks for your coming today, Bradley, but also for all you do and all your staff does. Dave said it well, the platinum standard I've heard from other places across Montana when they have elections questions, when they're unsure, they look to us, which means they look to you and your staff. Thank you for being that.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:21:32] Thank you.

Bradley Seaman: [00:21:33] Yeah. Thank you guys.

Josh Slotnick: [00:21:35] Thanks for listening to the agenda. If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you would rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you use.

Juanita Vero: [00:21:43] And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:21:49] The agenda with the Missoula County Commissioners is made possible with support from Missoula Community Access Television, better known as MCAT, and our staff in Missoula County Communications Division.

Josh Slotnick: [00:22:01] If you have a question or a topic you'd like us to discuss on a future episode, email it to communications@missoulacounty.us.

Juanita Vero: [00:22:08] To find out other ways to stay up to date with what's happening in Missoula County, go to Missoula.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:22:16] Thanks for listening.