Montana county recounts primary election ballots after some double-counted, same candidates advance

2024-12-23 19:14:25 source: category:Invest

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — A southwestern Montana county recounted its primary ballots Tuesday, but the results did not change the candidates who advance to the general election in nonpartisan races for a state judgeship and the city-county chief executive.

A judge ordered a recount last week after election officials acknowledged that about 1,000 ballots appeared to have been counted twice. The recount showed an overcount of 1,143 ballots out of 10,934 cast — just over 10%.

A member of the public had questioned the number of votes tallied in the June 4 primary, The Montana Standard reported.

Linda Sajor-Joyce, the county’s election chief, said she believed somebody accidentally took ballots that had come out of a tabulator and put them in the wrong spot, causing them to be counted again. Something similar had happened in the past, Sajor-Joyce told the Standard last week.

Sajor-Joyce said she also noticed the voting numbers might be off during a post-election audit, but thought the numbers were still acceptable.

“I knew I wanted to take a harder look at it,” she said, but it was difficult to make the time because county election offices also had to verify signatures for three constitutional initiatives — a task that took longer because the issue of counting the signatures of inactive voters ended up in court.

Republican Jason Ellsworth, president of the Montana Senate, said he was appointing a select committee to investigate the incident and determine if any changes in law need to be made to ensure something similar doesn’t happen again.

More:Invest

Recommend

2025 NFL Draft order: Updated first round picks after Week 10 games

Nine teams entered Week 10 of the 2024 NFL season with two wins. Two of those teams - the New York G

Suspended Heat center Thomas Bryant gets Nuggets championship ring, then leaves arena

Miami Heat center Thomas Bryant won an NBA championship last season as part of the Denver Nuggets an

CEO says Fanatics is 'getting the (expletive) kicked out of us' in MLB jersey controversy

Fanatics founder and chief executive officer Michael Rubin says his company is being blamed unfairly