Missoula Voters Turn Out in Droves for 2024 Election Night

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Election Officials were giddy, but slightly overwhelmed by the amazing turnout for Election Night 2024 in Missoula, with lines reaching around city blocks by the County Election Center.

I spoke with Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Election Administrator on the Extraordinary Voter Turnout

“It started this morning,” began Seaman. “I got in at five o'clock and found four voters in line waiting for 7:00 a.m. to get ready to go, and it didn't stop. We had a little bit of a lull midday, and then we kept our line down to about a three-hour wait time, which is what we were expecting. Now that three-hour wait time is quite a bit of time, but this is the most critical election in many voters’ lives, so we've been able to provide thousands of voters the opportunity to vote here at the polls, and we are getting in and processing ballots right now.”

Seaman said, unlike the most recent primary election, there were no initial numbers released to the media just as the polls closed at 8:00 p.m.

“When will we get results?” he asked. "(Later) tonight is really everybody's big look, and under new laws, we're going to count continuously throughout the evening, but we cannot release results until every voter in Missoula County has finished voting. What does that mean? Any polling places with a line called us at eight o'clock to report that line, but here (at the Election Center) we have about a three-hour wait for voters. Everybody queued in line. The last spot has been taken by our sheriff's deputy as well as our county attorney.”

No Election Results Will Be Released Until All Ballots are Counted

Seaman said it could be several more hours before any results can be released.

“Until this line here clears out, we won't be able to release results, and that's normal and expected,” he said. “Our first results could be 10:30 p.m. to 11 o'clock tonight, so we are continuing to tabulate ballots, add them into that initial release, and as soon as we're able to release those results, we'll be sending them to the Secretary of State's website and providing them to you all here.”

Seaman was Gratified at the Amazing Voter Turnout in Missoula County

Enjoying the extraordinary turnout, Seaman said he was gratified to see so many first time voters at the polls.

“Loving this amount of turnout,” he said. “I can't wait till we get to really crunch these numbers and see where we're at, but we're expecting this to be, historically, one of our largest elections. I think that we can just say thank you to everybody here (the election workers). These are your friends, family members and neighbors, who are all helping run this election process. Thank you to all of our voters and everybody for making this so successful. Thank you.”

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