And, we are the first and only to report that total voter turnout was a dismal 16.27%. Only 9855 of 60,563 registered voters voted!
Ok, stop the presses... I thought this mail ballot system was supposed to significantly increase turnout? Like into the 40-60% range?
Even odder, didn't the Missoulian report that the County Elections Office had already received ballots from 18% of voters as of last week? What happened to the other 1.73%?
And what about the 20% voter turn-out rate that our Elections Officer reported to 4&20 Balckbirds just yesterday? In this same post didn't 4&20 also report that the Elections Office was predicting a big turnout around 30%?
Did somebody make a forecasting boo-boo? Did some people come take their ballots back? Can you do that? (If you are not too embarrassed to admit it, can you take back a vote cast for Jon Tester?)
Did nobody vote in the last two to four days of the election? Or was the Elections Office and the lefty blogs working together to forward a pet idea, at the expense of reality? Is there a mistake in the report posted online by the Elections Office? Do we really have 60,563 registered voters, with a 2000 census population of 57,953? Did they accidentally list the registered voters for the county, rather than the city?
I think there are some questions to be answered, and to top it off, I can no longer find the story on Missoulian.com that reported the 18% number. Something is wrong here. We'll have to wait and see what the Missoulian reports tomorrow. Maybe I'll stand corrected, and there is a simple reason behind the turnout report.
On a completely different topic, do you remember that the Scoop wrote last week about the return ballot issue?
Over at 4&20, they overplayed my comments by suggesting that I was claiming that massive voter fraud was going on in Missoula County. Which, of course, I was not. I said it could be happening because the numbers don't add up. If I was the person responsible for maintaining the election integrity in our county, and 25% of our mail ballots came back in the mail as "undeliverable", I'd start asking some serious questions. (And maybe this has happened, but it has not been communicated well to the public)
Mr. Talbot at 4&20 tries to hastily wash away the issue, by claiming we are a college town with a migratory population of students. (A statement he got from our Elections Office). But nobody is doing the math. With roughly 60,000 registered voters, 25% of the voters is 15,000 people.
The University doesn't have that many students. This also assumes that 100% of student are registered to vote and that absolutely none of them file change of address cards or re-register to vote at any of the fifty or so voter registrations tables set up on campus each election cycle.
The bottom line...I don't buy the answer, and neither should you.Something is wrong in Missoula County. The number are not adding up.
And it does not seem like anybody is seriously looking at the numbers and asking why. Or, if they are, we have not heard yet.
Unofficial Final Election Results (by Ward)
First, a big thank you to all the candidates that ran. You make our democracy work!
Contested Races
Ward 2
Dave Huerta: 218 votes or 14.84%
Don Nicholson(i): 700 votes or 47.65%<----- WINNER
Pam Walzer: 541 votes or 36.83% <----- WINNER
Write-In: 10 votes or .68%
Total Votes: 1469
Ward 4
Alan Ault: 403 votes or 17.12%
Jerry Ballas(i): 748 votes or 31.78% <----- WINNER
Joe Gorsh: 128 votes or 5.44%
Lyn Hellegaard: 584 votes or 24.81%<-----WINNER
Denver Henderson: 479 votes or 20.34%
Write-In: 12 votes or .51%
Total Votes: 2354
Ward 6
Ed Childers(i): 578 votes or 44.53% <-----WINNER
Martin Guthrie: 310 votes or 23.88%
Lewie Schneller: 402 votes or 30.97% <-----WINNER
Write-In: 8 votes or .61%
Total Votes: 1298
Uncontested Races
Ward 1
Justin Armintrout: 493 votes or 33.40%
Jason Wiener: 941 votes or 63.75%
Write-In: 42 votes or 2.84%
Total Votes: 1476
Ward 3
Doug Harrison: 793 votes or 44.42%
Stacy Rye(i): 980 votes or 54.90%
Write-In: 12 votes or .67%
Total Votes: 1785
Ward 5
Christine Prescott: 600 votes or 42.43%
Renee Mitchell: 797 votes or 56.36%
Write-In: 17 votes or 1.20%
Total Votes: 1414
Percent Reporting: 100% or 62 of 62 precints.
(i) = Incumbent
Here is a link to the official results just posted at the Missoula County Elections Office results.
5 comments:
In Bozeman, the elemetary bond issue passed, getting 64% of the votes.
The two top vote getters out of five, in the city commission race were
Betty Strook, 50%
Eric Bryson, 24%
Both Mayoral candidates and the unopposed judge move on, of course.
Not quite as exciting as the Missoula races
Oh, and good job! What was the turnout? It was almost 35% in Bozeman.
BTW, on the student issue. Some students vote absentee, or with mail ballots, in their places of residence, where their license plates are numbered, ya know? Where they go back to each summer?
Not in Mizzou, or Bozone
I said anything over 20% turnout would be gravy, in a muni primary election, imo. Bozo's turnout was due in part to it being a combined city primary/school bond issue election.
I'd be interested to hear what the heck on the 18% vs 20% issue. It should be, if you go to the election dept, right at the top of each district report, # registered voters, # ballots cast, even # undervoting (if that could happen in the district).
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