Of the almost 10,000 ballots the office has received so far this year, the bin of rejected ballots held maybe 50. More than 40,000 absentee ballots were sent out this year, Connors said.

The elections office calls and sends a letter to voters whose ballots are rejected, so they can come in and re-sign or fill out a new ballot.

“We try everything to get a voter the chance to vote,” Connors said.

When the receipter finishes checking every signature in a bundle, they print out a report, marking whether the ballots were rejected or not, and add it to the batch number also rubber-banded to the outside of the ballots.

Crates full of bundled ballots are then carried over to reconciliation, in the picnic annex next to the race track, where aides check the groups against the report.

“We have to make sure that everything on the list is in hand,” election aide Doris Walther said. “Then we sort them.”

One wall of the room holds shelves and shelves of bins for every one of the 51 voting precincts in Missoula County.

This is the first time the blue inner envelopes are removed from their white exteriors, with only the precinct information – no personal information – available to staff.