Can you win an election by two votes in Montana? Yes. It just happened.

In Billings, the state’s largest city in the state’s largest county, about 200 votes decided the 30,000-vote race for mayor this week. In Helena, city Commissioner Emily Dean defeated fellow Commissioner Andy Shirtliff for mayor by 203 votes, roughly 2% of the nearly 11,000 ballots cast. In Laurel, a small town west of Billings, 25 votes separated two mayoral candidates in a 1,100-vote election. In central Montana’s Petroleum County, the smallest in the state by population, a candidate lost the county commission race by 17 votes. And in the northwest Montana town of Rexford, a town council race was decided by a two-vote margin. 

Close races could leave a person wondering: How many votes do you need to win a Montana election? Just one, actually.

But state statute allows the loser to request recounts with any margin less than or equal to 0.5% of votes cast in the race. So in a race with more than 200 voters that was decided by one vote, election officials would likely be tasked with conducting a recount.

If a race is decided by 0.25%, the elections office foots the bill for the recount. If the margin is between 0.25% and 0.5%, the defeated candidate would have to pay.

No major Montana races are currently eligible for a recount, though vote counts are considered unofficial until canvassing is completed later this month. But a recount did happen this time last year.

After Park County Republican Marty Malone trailed then-candidate Scott Rosenzweig by 20 votes in a race for the state Legislature, Malone requested a recount. It didn’t save him. The final tally: Rosenzweig 3,802, Malone 3,785.

So how does it feel to lose by less than 1%? Montana Free Press asked marketing professional Kassi Strong, who was running for city council in Billings’ Ward 2 on Tuesday. Strong lost to former county commissioner Denis Pitman by 109 votes.

“Part of me feels like, ‘Man, was there something I could have done just a little better to pick up that small amount of votes?’”

Recent Montana races have been even tighter.

In 2021, two incidents of voter fraud stumped election officials in Phillips County when a mayoral race was decided by two votes. Incumbent Angel Arocha, who had the lead going into the confusion, won. 

In 2023, Missoula’s City Council Ward 6 race ended in a tie — 1,476 to 1,476. The choice fell to the city council, which picked Sandra Vasecka over Sean Patrick McCoy. 

Tuesday’s election was a rematch between the two Missoula candidates. About the same number of people voted. The final result? McCoy 1,764, Vasecka 1,163.