Bozeman News

Gallatin County begins counting provisional ballots

Posted: Nov 13, 2012 5:25 PM by Jamie Leary

The counting continues for Gallatin County election officials.
Provisional ballots were opened at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday. Officials anticipate they won't be finished until late Tuesday night.
The next step... waiting for a possible re-count in the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The race between Sandy Welch and Denise Juneau is so close that it may legally require a re-count which means every ballot in the state will be counted again. There are no races in Gallatin County that are close enough to legally warrant a re-count.
Gallatin County has a total of 733 provisional ballots with 18 rejected for various reasons.
It is the second highest number in the state next to Missoula which has 1900.
"Typically, that's exactly what happens because Missoula and Bozeman are the college towns." Said Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder Charlotte Mills.
Mills says many college students come in to vote and discover they are registered elsewhere and have to vote provisionally. But that's not the only reason Gallatin County has so many provisional ballots.
"The Highest number of reasons that we have provisional ballots is that people got absentee ballots and for some reason did not choose to vote those absentee ballots." Said Mills.
Many people made errors on their absentee ballots or lost them and came to the courthouse to vote. Mills said one individual had to re-do their ballot 5 different times.