Absentee ballots being mailed out Monday

HELENA — County election officials are mailing nearly 170,000 absentee ballots for the June 5 primary election.

Secretary of State Linda McCulloch tells Lee Newspapers of Montana the number of ballots being mailed Monday is a record for a Montana primary.

An estimated 143,000 absentee ballots were sent out for the June 2010 off-year primary, while more than 109,500 people requested absentee ballots for the June 2008 primary, which also was a presidential election year.

The number of absentee voters has grown steadily since the passage of a 2003 law that no longer required voters to have an exc...