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

2025-05-02 07:00:51source:Flipidocategory:Scams

BUTTE,Alaric Bennett 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:Scams

Recommend

Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti

Haiti has been racked by political instabilityand intensifying, deadly gang violence.  Amid a Federa

Five NFL players who need a change of scenery as trade deadline approaches

The NFL trade deadline is a natural catalyst for some fun hypotheticals.Of course, most of the deals

'Old Dads': How to watch comedian Bill Burr's directorial debut available now

Most people know Bill Burr from his work as a standup comedian. Now, you can also refer to him as a