Updated 2:46 a.m. Nov. 6

Polls closed at 8 p.m. in Cascade County.

Under state law, registration and voting continues until the last person who was in line when polls closed has voted.

At 11:55 p.m., the last person in line made it to the table to register to a collective cheer throughout Exhibition Hall.

No results can be reported until the last person in line has cast their ballot.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and wait times ranged throughout the day.

Those who had their absentee ballots could drop them off at the courthouse annex or Expo Park.

Those who were registered and knew their precincts were able to vote in under 20 minutes in most cases.

Those who hadn’t received their absentee ballots waited in line for one to four hours, according to a variety of voters here today.

Those who had not registered, waited in line at Expo Park up to eight hours today.

As the last few people were registering to vote, a woman who was working as an election judge today told The Electric that voters throughout the day had been patient, gracious and kind despite the long waits and she was grateful.

The Cascade County elections office worked through the weekend to prepare for the Nov. 5 election.

Lines to register to vote at Expo Park were long, snaking around the Pacific Steel and Recycling Four Seasons Arena. People were dragging chairs with them, reminiscent of a scene from the first Pitch Perfect movie, as the line inched forward.

The line for those with absentee ballot issues, such as not receiving a ballot or losing it, was moving quicker this afternoon, but is still long.

For registered voters who know their precinct, they can go straight to that table in Expo Park to vote.

Voters can look up their precinct information here.

If you don’t live within the city limits, your polling place may be different than Expo Park.

See the list of policing places here.

Terry Thompson, county election administrator, told The Electric that if a voter’s information is all correct and they’re inactive, they can proceed to their precinct table and vote.

She said that election officials are helping those who don’t know their precincts look it up quickly to proceed to their table to vote.

County elections office prepping for Tuesday’s election

If their information, such as their address, is not correct, they’ll have to wait in the line so that officials can verify they aren’t registered anywhere else.

Thompson said that voters were sent letters last year and voter confirmation cards this year and if they didn’t respond those those communications the voter system inactivates them, following state laws and processes.

After this election, the county election office will send letters again to voters asking them to confirm their registration information.

County staff said they’ve been making adjustments throughout the day to speed the voting process, such as adding more tables for people to sit down and fill out their ballots, splitting lines and going through telling people that if they know their precinct they can proceed directly to that table to get their ballot.

Early in the day, one line was designated for handicapped and voters with children.

Talya Madison stood in that line for about an hour before being told she needed to move to the other line to register.

Madison said she tried to vote early but got tied up with work. She said she tried to register at the county annex on Nov. 4 but got there about 1 p.m. when late registration cut off at noon.

On Nov. 5, she said that she’s former military and 100 percent disabled, but isn’t a wheelchair or visibly handicapped.

But, as a minister, she said she wanted to follow the rules and not cause problems, so she went to the other line to register, where she waiting for nearly seven hours.

Madison said she left around 3 p.m. to grab lunch for herself and three other women who held her place in line. When she came back, she said she was upset to see the line she was initially in was no longer just for handicapped but said, “I’m here and I’m gonna stick it out.”

From the East Coast, Madison said she was surprised by how elections were conducted here and “I think this is just insane.”

She said she say a lot of people leave after waiting in line for awhile. One woman with two children was waiting patiently in line but eventually left in tears after one of her kids melted down and she needed to go home, Madison said.

Once she got her registration sorted, she skipped back through Exhibition Hall saying she was registered to cheers and applause from those still in line.

At her precinct table, she cast her ballot around 7 p.m.

Asked why she wanted to stick it out, Madison said, “I believe in what’s going on. I can’t complain if I don’t vote. I wanted to vote. There’s a lot of important things that we need to vote on.”

Thompson said there appears to be issues with the postal service as a number of local absentee voters did not receive their ballots, but her office has received voted ballots from Texas and Washington that her staff has set aside.

Under state law, officials cannot run vote count reports, until the last person in line at 8 p.m. has voted.

For comparison, in 2020, the last person in line voted around 11 p.m. and reporters had the batch of preliminary results around 11:15 p.m.

In 2020, the wait times varied between 1.5 and four hours at Expo Park, according to The Electric’s reports at the time.

Absentee voters were mailed their ballots in October and those could be returned by mail, as long as they are received in the election office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, or can be returned in person in the drop box or in the election office or dropped off on election day at Montana Expo Park.

Thompson opened the drop box at the county annex on Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for voters to drop off the ballots that were mailed to them.

Montana does not have early voting that some other states do, but allows for voters to choose absentee and be mailed their ballots.

County elections office swamped, working to update ballot status, register voters

For election day, the drop box at the courthouse annex/county offices at 325 2nd Ave. N. is open through 8 p.m.

The drive up drop box at Expo Park on election day is open through 8 p.m.

As of 1 p.m. Nov. 1, Thompson said her office had issued 37,004 ballots so far. Of those, 24,484, or 66 percent, had been returned.

The number of voter registrations completed from Aug. 21 to Nov. 1 was 2,114, she said, and her office had lines of people wanting to register over the last two weeks. The line to register or update registration information wrapped around the annex building on Nov. 4.

In 2020, preliminary results were printed at 3:15 a.m. with 40,353 ballots counted, which was all ballots for Cascade County other than 100 or fewer that needed to be hand counted, according to election officials at the time.

Regular voter registration for the Nov. 5 election closed on Oct. 7. Late registration began Oct. 8 and must be done in person.

Late registration was available through noon Nov. 4 at the county election office and anyone missing that deadline must appear in person on election day at Exhibition Hall to register and vote.

The registration deadlines were included in multiple previous reports by The Electric and other media outlets, were posted on the county elections website and the Montana Secretary of State website.

Thompson said a deputy stood in the line to help with the noon cutoff and that her staff continued helping voters with any issue other than registration until 5:20 p.m. on Nov. 4.

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Voters must appear in person to update their registration for address and name changes or get a replacement ballot for spoiled and absentee ballots that didn’t arrive.

Thompson said the public should be prepared to wait and stand in a line, which stretched from the election office door to the 2nd Avenue North doors on Nov. 1.

Thompson has asked the public to be patient, “we are doing the best we can.”

MTEOI seeking nonpartisan observers for Nov. 5 election

Pete Fontana, a local voter and brother of legislative candidate Rina Fontana Moore, sent out a media release over the weekend indicating that some voters had been sent ballots for the wrong precinct.

On Sunday, Thompson said one voter had brought in their ballot identifying that issue and on election day, she said the Montana Secretary of State’s office had identified 11 people affected that the state thinks is a GIS issue.

The Montana Election Observation Initiative, a nonpartisan effort to increase transparency and trust in Montana’s elections, mobilized citizen volunteers to observe the 2024 general election in several counties across the state, including Cascade County.

On. Nov. 5, the MTEOI deployed 118 observers who visited 76 unique voting locations in 16 of Montana’s 56 counties.

Observers were deployed to: Big Horn, Broadwater, Carbon, Cascade, Custer, Flathead, Gallatin, Glacier, Hill, Lake, Lewis & Clark, Missoula, Ravalli, Roosevelt, Rosebud, and Yellowstone counties.

MTEOI observers volunteer to observe in their own communities, adhere to a code of conduct that emphasizes impartiality and professional standards, and complete rigorous training to ensure their understanding of the relevant laws and procedures, according to the group.

Before the election, MTEOI observers monitored public accuracy tests of voting equipment and assessed absentee ballot processing in several counties. Following the close of polls, MTEOI continued its assessment through vote
tabulation and, in the coming weeks, the handling of provisional ballots, post-election audits, and the county canvass when the results will be certified.

The MTEOI team will develop evidence-based reports and may offer recommendations for reform to improve the administration of future elections. The reports will detail the mission’s findings and observations for each stage of the election process and offer recommendations for election officials to implement for future election cycles, according to the group.

The initiative is operating under the guidance of a cross-partisan advisory committee chaired by former legislators
Jeff Mangan and Geraldine Custer, and sponsored by The Carter Center in partnership with the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana.

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Thompson said last month that a number of people mailed in registration forms after regular registration closed and have called asking about their ballot, not realizing they need to register in person to receive a ballot. She said earlier this month that her staff hadn’t had time to call everyone who mailed in their registration after the close of regular registration that they have to come to the office in person.

Thompson is following this schedule:

• Nov. 1: Exhibition Hall set up starts, election office remains open in the annex with limited staff
• Nov. 4: early counting of absentee ballots begins with election department staff and election judges; election office remains open in the annex with limited staff through 5 p.m.
• Nov. 5: Election Day, all election operations will be conducted at Exhibition Hall; the election office will be closed and no staff will be working on the annex;  a ballot drop box at the annex will be available from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; polls close at 8 p.m.
• Nov. 6: Exhibition Hall tear down begins; election office will reopen at the annex at 8 a.m. with limited staff until Expo Park tear down is finished