Late registrations delay voting process

A surge of late voters registering slowed the election process in Flathead County on Tuesday.

A total of 1,028 voters registered at the Flathead County Fairgrounds on Election Day. That compares to 800 in 2008.

People waited as long as 3 1/2 hours to register during the day Tuesday, and when polls technically closed at 8 p.m., there were still dozens of people waiting to register. 

At 8:30 p.m. the line still included 30 to 40 voters who had procrastinated until election night to register.

The last of the late registrants finally entered the Country Fair Kitchen building at 9:32 p.m.

The late voters meant vote-counting was delayed for Flathead County and the first results were not released until 11 p.m. After midnight, some 24,000 absentee ballots had yet to be counted.

An unexpected glitch developed early Tuesday when one of the county’s vote-counting machines broke down.

A repairman flew from Gallatin County to Missoula and was driving to Flathead County Tuesday night, but he was “slowed down by deer,” according to Jan Hardesty, records preservation manager for Flathead County.

The machine eventually was fixed late Tuesday night. However, because it had malfunctioned, 9,000 ballots that had gone through that counter were to be recounted.

High voter turnout created other problems on Election Day as at least two polling places — Kila and Pleasant Valley — temporarily ran out of ballots.

Pleasant Valley normally has an allotment of 30 ballots, but voting spiked there because of 18-year-olds voting for the first time. 

One precinct — West Glacier — was not counted at all on Tuesday night because a card was left in the voting machine, the polling place at West Glacier School was closed and no one was able to unlock the school.

The estimated 200 West Glacier ballots were to be counted today.

Same-day registration delays also were reported elsewhere in Montana, according to The Associated Press.

Secretary of State Linda McCulloch spokeswoman Terri McCoy pointed to registration delays in all of Montana’s cities with the exception of Butte-Silver Bow County.

That delayed the tabulation and reporting of results in those counties.

Susan Swimley of the Gallatin County election office said the wait there was estimated at four hours — even after polls closed at 8 p.m. 

Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Rina Fontana Moore says the late-registration lines in Great Falls were longer Tuesday than they were in 2008.

Yellowstone, Missoula and Lewis and Clark counties also processed a steady stream of late registrations.