GALLATIN COUNTY, Mont. — Election Day may be over, but the work is continuing inside the Gallatin County Courthouse, where election workers are still counting thousands of ballots and reviewing votes that need additional attention.
Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder and Election Administrator Eric Semerad says a small team of workers continued counting ballots overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, posting election results throughout the night.
He says the county received approximately 46,000 ballots, with roughly 10,000 still waiting to be counted by midday Wednesday.
One of the biggest reasons the process takes time is the number of absentee ballots returned on Election Day.
“We received over 11,000 absentee ballots just yesterday… we essentially got most of those after the polls closed last night,” Semerad said.
Those ballots cannot be processed ahead of time, adding to the workload election workers face after Election Day.
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Before absentee ballots can be counted, election workers have to complete several steps. They check voter signatures, organize and reconcile batches of ballots, and then open and run them through tabulating machines.
Ballots that are flagged by the machines also require additional review, and resolution boards examine ballots with overvotes or ballots the machines are unable to read.
Semerad says the county expects to continue counting into Wednesday evening.
“We'd love to see the ballots get voted and delivered to our office earlier, but, you know, we take the ballots as they come and we count them,” he said.
Even after the remaining ballots are counted, election workers will have more work to do. There are three write-in races on the Gallatin County ballot. Workers are expected to begin reviewing and tallying those votes Thursday.
Semerad explained the extended counting process is not unusual for Gallatin County, where a large number of absentee ballots are often returned on Election Day.
As ballots continue to be processed, the county will keep updating its results.
