The nearly 614,000 Montanans who cast ballots in the Nov. 5 general election delivered, in aggregate, a monochromatic result, electing Republicans to statewide offices up and down the ticket. When the winning candidates are sworn in in January, Democrats will be without a statewide seat in Montana for the first time in more than a century.
Precinct-level election data available from the Montana secretary of state, however, indicates that Montana’s political geography remains more complex than a monolithic sea of Republican red.
At the top of the Montana ticket, three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, lost to Republican candidate Tim Sheehy by a 7.1% margin, with Sheehy winning all but 11 of Montana’s 56 counties. Tester, however, won majorities of the vote in the cores of Montana’s largest urban centers: Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Kalispell, Helena and Butte. Tester also won rural precincts around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks as well as many areas that overlap with Indian reservations.
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Precincts in Missoula and Bozeman recorded the highest vote share for Tester, peaking at 90% and 84%, respectively, followed by Helena at 79%. Great Falls and Billings saw peak precinct vote share for Tester of about 60%.
The highest Democratic vote share in any precinct went to Tester in Big Horn County’s precinct 7, home to Crow Agency. Tester received all but 8 of the 481 votes cast, giving him a 98% share of the vote.
On the other end of the spectrum, in Custer County’s Ismay Church precinct, every Republican running for statewide office received all of the 28 votes cast in the precinct –– except Tim Sheehy, who secured 26 votes. Another Custer County precinct, Spring Creek School, also gave all its votes to several statewide Republicans, though it didn’t achieve the nearly clean sweep seen in Ismay Church.
The data presented here represents a complete but preliminary count of votes in the state’s 727 election precincts. Montana Free Press will update this story once election officials complete their official certification process, which involves verifying and finalizing county vote counts within 14 days of the election before statewide certification by the state board of canvassers. Montana law requires that board to meet “within 27 days after the election, or sooner if the returns are all received.”
Among Montana’s 727 precincts, one stands out for its absence of election results: Flathead County’s precinct 56, which encompasses the uninhabited expanse of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The lack of vote totals is not an error, but rather a reflection of the precinct’s uniquely unpopulated status.
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