Election Day in Flathead County went smoothly despite high turnout, officials say

Despite overwhelming voter turnout again this year, the general election in Flathead County went smoothly with the final ballot cast at 1 a.m., Nov. 6, election officials said.

While results of the Nov. 5 election will be finalized Tuesday by Flathead County commissioners, unofficial results show that out of 84,333 registered voters in the county, 62,932 Flathead County residents cast their ballots last week.  

That is nearly 75% of voters, up from the June primary where only 29,733 — or 37% — of voters in Flathead County went to the ballot box, but in line with recent general election turnout.  

In the 2020 general election, 79.5% of registered voters in Flathead County voted, totaling 60,642 ballots cast. In the 2016 general election, about 72% of all registered voters cast ballots, totaling 48,290. 

“I would suspect that the majority of election officials nationwide were probably shocked by the turnout,” said Flathead County Interim Election Manager Paula Buff late last week.  

The department will count provisional ballots Tuesday before completing state-mandated audits at the end of the week. County commissioners are expected to canvas, approve and finalize the results on Tuesday as well.  

On Election Day, the county had nearly 400 volunteers and employees working at various polling locations. Election Department officials this year also received help from volunteer poll runners, parking attendants and members of the Sheriff’s Posse. 

Just 25% of voters cast their ballot on Nov. 5. The other 75% voted early or submitted absentee ballots. That put the bulk of the work on the handful of county employees at the Election Department with the exception of Election Day itself. 

Flathead County adopted a mail-in election in 2020 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, though voters could still cast ballots in person at the Election Department office.  

Officials said they did what they could with the space they had in the lead up to Election Day this year, though at times leaving the office meant “wading through a sea of people.”   

“We probably are better prepared to look at staffing differently next time based on our experience this time,” Election Supervisor Christina Glatz said, reflecting on the influx of early voters.  

Wait times to cast ballots across the state on Nov. 5 exceeded several hours. By the time polls closed at 8 p.m. at the Election Department in Kalispell, those in line had a six hour wait to register and vote. The last ballot was cast at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, Glatz said. 

“But everyone was in good spirits,” she said. “I think there was a lot of excitement for being able to vote this year.” 

Buff said there were also lines at the beginning of the day, which she said could be due to redistricting as people had to confirm their new precincts. Lines to register were longer than lines to vote, she said.  

Glatz observed a large presence of young voters this election cycle as well as a good number of first-time voters of all ages.  

In Flathead County, 65% of voters backed president-elect Donald Trump in the presidential election, 61% of county voters backed Republican businessman Tim Sheehy over incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and 64% backed Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke over Democrat Monica Tranel. Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, received 66% of the county’s vote.  

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.