The start of the Montana election season has been rough for absentee voters who discovered Vice President Kamala Harris was not one of the candidates on their ballot.

When going online on September 20, the state of Montana was compelled to close its electronic absentee voting system when a voter complained that Vice President Harris was unavailable to vote.

Max Himsl, a Montana voter residing in the UK, discovered the problem while attempting to complete his online voting form. On Friday, September 20, he immediately reported it to the Flathead County Election Department.

The Republican-run Secretary of State’s office, under the direction of Christi Jacobson, brought down the Electronic Absentee System for troubleshooting despite claims that it had only affected a small number of voters.

“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 dependants 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,'” Newsweek reported.

A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office told Newsweek: “On Friday morning, our office received a report of a ballot not displaying properly for a UOCAVA voter [meaning eligible military and overseas citizens]. As mentioned, the system was taken offline in the morning for troubleshooting with the vendor, and it was back online in the afternoon. The potentially impacted UOCAVA voter who submitted a ballot has since been contacted, and no further action is required. Vice President Kamala Harris and all certified candidates appear on Montana’s ballots.”

The Secretary of State assured voters that this ballot issue would not have an impact on Election Day ballots or paper absentee ballots.

A list of every candidate on the Montana ballot is available on the “Vote Montana” platform.

There is Kamala Harris on this list. Donald Trump, Jill Stein, Chase Oliver, Kamala Harris, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are all on their list of contenders. Joseph R. Biden is crossed out at the top of the ballot.

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Montana Voting System Shut Down After Kamala Harris Left Off Ballot
Source: Newsweek https://t.co/1ZhKLEsgEM

— Dennis M. Taylor (he/him) (@dmt4mt) September 24, 2024

This comes as former President Donald Trump looks to have made impressive gains over Kamala Harris, gaining roughly 14 points among independents and 19 points among Latino voters.

According to new polling from NPR/PBS News/Marist, Trump has surpassed Harris by three points among independents in a multi-candidate race, 49% to 46%. This represents a considerable increase since August, when Trump trailed Harris, 59, by 11 points, 48% to 37%.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had received 12% of the vote in the previous survey, withdrew from the contest and endorsed Trump in the interim between the August and September polls. Furthermore, Harris’s “honeymoon” following her sudden ascent to the nomination has started to level out.

In August, Trump led Harris by fifteen points, 54% to 39%, among Latino voters; by now, Trump leads by four points, with 51% of the vote to Harris’s 47%.

“When Trump and Harris square off in Philadelphia, the stakes are sky-high because the contest is so close,” Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, explained.

“Only single digits separate the candidates on most issues important to voters. But voters who value honesty are overwhelmingly for Harris, and voters looking for strong leadership are mostly in Trump’s corner. Will this still be the case on Wednesday morning?”

According to the poll, almost 70% of Americans said they would watch the debate, and 30% of registered voters think it would influence their decision on who to support.

However, 69% of respondents say it probably won’t be beneficial.