HELENA — Voters lined up Tuesday at the City/County building to register to vote and cast their ballot. At times there were dozens of people in line.
The parking lot outside the City/County Building was a Tetris board of ever-changing cars as folks quickly parked to go inside and drop off their ballots, head to the polling stations and stand in a pretty long line to register to vote before the deadline at 8 PM Tuesday evening.
After dropping off my own ballot, I was curious as to what brought out my fellow Montanans to vote on election day.
Will Krings, a senior in high school, just turned 18 this past July. He’s taking this opportunity to make his voice heard.
“I’m a senior in high school and we're learning just a lot about it. And just, you know, it's important. We need to get everyone's vote in just to make sure that, like, especially with young people, so we can have like a more diverse voting group,” says Krings.
Others, like state worker Eli Hodges, feel that this election is especially important.
“I feel that now, more than ever, especially with certain motions in the bigger political landscape, it’s important that all Montanans come out to make sure that they're getting their voice heard, as cliche as that sounds,” says Hodges.
Kylie Stubbs, a first-time voter, felt propelled to vote for the first time ever after relating to current political topics.
“There were a lot of like women's rights, abortion rights that popped up that I was like I have to, like there's no way that I can't go out and vote and like do what I can to support that. And so, yeah, there were just some things that like affected me I think more personally that I felt like I needed to stand for,” says Stubbs.
Whatever the reason to get out and vote, the fact is many Montanans made the decision for their voice to be heard this Tuesday.
