Montana Voters Decide Key Federal Races- Updates

UPDATE: 10:40 PM

Sam Forstag is making a big move, with votes finally coming in from #Missoula County, capturing 71% of the vote with 31,244 over Aaron Flint with 12,097. That gives Forstag 53% of the statewide vote. Flint will be depending on Flathead, Ravalli & rural areas to maintain lead.

UPDATE 10:00 PM 

Approaching 200k votes statewide, and all three of Montana's Constitutional Initiatives, including the measure for a non-partisan judiciary and the "Montana Plan"  are cruising to approval.

UPDATE: 9:50 PM

UPDATE 9:15 PM

With just over 100k votes in, the battle for Flathead County judges for Montana State Supreme Court is heading Amy Eddy's way. She holds 62% of the vote over Judge Dan Wilson. 

UPDATE 8:45 PM

With just over 62,000 votes counted, GOP nominee Kurt Alme continues to hold around a 60% margin over Independent Seth Bodnar, who's ranging between 37% and 40%.

Democrat Alani Bankhead trailing at 12-13%. Libertarian Kyle Austin with 2%.

In the House District 1 race to replace Rep. Ryan Zinke, Democrat Sam Forstag looked strong initially, but most recent tally shows him nearly neck and neck with Republican Aaron Flint, with 49% for the firefighter and 48% for the talk show host.

UPDATE 8 PM

     Polls have closed across Montana at this hour and we're expecting to see the first numbers shortly

Turnout was strong

Montana's absentee voting data released by the Secretary of State’s Office was showing widespread participation across the Big Sky State, with voter return rates reaching between 51.44% and 82.30% across individual counties.

That's on par with the 2018 Midterm elections with all kinds of ballots, which settled at 71%, and above the 61% in 2022. However, it will likely trail the overall turnout of 76% in 2024.

Metro area turnout true to form

Across Montana’s major population centers, voter participation reflected strong absentee engagement heading into the close of voting on Election Day.

In Yellowstone County, the state's most populous jurisdiction, high volumes of mail-in voting drove early activity, alongside heavy tallies in Missoula County and Flathead County, where tens of thousands of ballots were processed through local election departments.

Cascade County, election officials issued 36,611 absentee ballots and logged 25,613 returned, generating a 69.96% return rate. In Gallatin County, 43,905 of 67,708 issued ballots were received back by election authorities, reaching a 64.84% return rate.

Who returned the most vote by mail ballots?

Prairie and Powder River counties had the best rate of returns at more than 82%

Early voting benchmarks statewide saw over 300,000 mail ballots returned out of roughly 530,000 requested across Montana's 56 counties.