Montana election results 2024

Election Day 2024 is here, with numerous races across Montana and nationally.

County election officials across Montana are now counting ballots — but they're doing that work under new rules put in place by the state Legislature last year that require some counties to adjust their procedures.

“They had an impact in the primary, but they will have a bigger impact in the general election,” said Bradley Seaman, Missoula County elections administrator.

In previous elections, counties sometimes counted votes until after midnight, then took a break and returned in the morning. That's about to change now that House Bill 196 has been passed and signed into law during the 2023 legislative session.

HB 196 states that once counties begin counting votes on Election Day, they “shall proceed without adjournment until all available ballots that can lawfully be counted have been tabulated,” with the exception of provisional ballots and military ballots.

It also states that “once all voters in a county have completed their voting,” counties must release their initial results and provide updates at least every three hours.

The changes mean that polling staff will be on duty throughout the night. Seaman said they've specifically gotten people to work overnight so they won't rely on employees who are already on the road for hours. He said it was a challenge to find people who were trained, rested and ready for the shift.

“It's always that balance: making sure voters get accurate and timely election results, and how do we balance timeliness and accuracy?” Seaman said. “We always value accuracy in elections – but that means we are sometimes forced into creative solutions like this.”

Eric Semerad, the Gallatin County clerk and surveyor, says his office received a Help America Vote Act grant from the Montana Secretary of State's office that allowed him to hire additional people for the “graveyard shift.”

“So hopefully these processes will continue at a good pace throughout the night so that we can really hit the ground running and maybe be finished by midday on Wednesday rather than 9:00 on Wednesday evening,” he said.

Both Seaman and Semerad said the public should not expect to immediately see results from their counties when polls close Tuesday at 8 p.m. Missoula and Gallatin counties both expect many voters to come out to register on the same day. They won't release their initial results while there's someone waiting in line.

“We want to encourage every voter to vote; We want to make sure voters are not influenced,” Seaman said. “There was no line in the area code, so it was very quick for us. This is a federal presidential election and we expect to be able to serve voters after 8 p.m.”

“Some counties may be very quick and some may be very late,” he added. “This has nothing to do with how this election went. It just depends on how long that line is.”

“We're seeing longer lines than ever before in this election leading up to the election, and that's why I think those lines on election day might be longer than ever before,” Semerad said. “Normally we have a queue of around three to four hours, but it can take up to six hours. If that is the case, we could be ahead of the publication of the results by Wednesday morning.”