Live updates from Montana’s 2026 election

After casting her vote at the City-County Building, Helena resident Elsie O’Connor told MTFP that the issues that inspired her to vote this year include maintaining access to public lands, the economy and healthcare.

“I think I’ve seen a bigger turnout than I usually do,” O’Connor said. “I think people are here to vote to have their voice heard.”

So far, 25,940 (70%) absentee ballots have been accepted out of 36,650 at the county elections office, according to Lewis and Clark County elections office senior clerk Cece Bracken.

—JoVonne Wagner

From left to right, election judges Jennifer Staubach, Amy Wisniewski, Pete Hogan and Steve Chernausek have been registering voters and keeping a watchful eye on the voting place at the BASE Community Center in Big Sky Tuesday.

“It’s been encouraging to see all the young people coming out to vote,” Chernausek said.

“One voter [paraphrased] Carlos Santana,” Wisniewski added. “If a bird has only a left wing or a right wing, it won’t fly.”

—Joseph O’Connor

A pop-up super PAC has spent more than $117,000 on digital advertising, promoting Libertarian House candidate Nick Sheedy in the election’s final weeks. The ads by Our Heritage Matters began appearing Oct. 21 and have since continued. Because it registered with the Federal Elections Commission Oct. 15, little is known about OHM’s donors. The super PAC’s treasurer is a Salt Lake-based campaign compliance firm with multiple state Republican parties and candidates as clients.

No Going Back PAC, a group heavily funded by President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc., which has ads opposing Democrat Sam Forstag, has spent approximately $17,500 opposing Sheedy since Our Heritage Matters ads first appeared.

— Tom Lutey

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent approximately 1,000 elections monitors to polling places in all 50 states today. In Montana, they’re slated to observe only in Yellowstone County, according to a DOJ press release. That was news to Yellowstone County Elections Administrator Dayna Causby, who said at 11:30 a.m. no federal elections monitor had checked in with the polling place manager, as required. The DOJ has sent elections monitors to Montana for the general election in 2016, 2020 and 2024, according to Richie Melby, spokesperson for the Montana Secretary of State. He said the press release was also the first he’s heard of a DOJ presence in Montana this year.

— Phoebe Tollefson

Three voters were waiting when University of Montana’s James E. Todd Building polling place opened at 7 a.m., and election staff and volunteers have been busy since, said Geoff Badenoch, the polling place manager. The on-campus polling place serves many young and first-time voters, and Badenoch said he aims to provide a positive experience to make them voters for life. UM student Cameron Contreras, 20, said this was his first time voting in person and that it was smoother than he expected.

— Katie Fairbanks

Sue King, a retired clergy member, is stationed outside the polling place in Great Falls as a “poll chaplain.” King, right, and volunteer Joy Schuster, left, had the morning shift at the Montana ExpoPark fairgrounds. They said their job is to de-escalate any tensions that might arise and to keep the environment friendly. “You don’t want anybody hangry,” Schuster said of the snacks available.

— Matt Hudson

Carroll College students Wyatt Ehredt and Leevi Bohrer are posted outside the Helena Civic Center polling location with clipboards and surveys, asking folks who’ve already voted to take part in an exit-polling study.

The students told MTFP that the data collected today will be used in a research project for an elections class taught by Carroll professor Alex Street.

— JoVonne Wagner

Election judge Beth Hickock — who says she’s related to “Wild Bill” Hickock — hands Bozeman-area voter Eric Muir an “I Voted” sticker at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds. Muir said he’s looking for candidates with “good common-sense family values” on the ballot nationally and strong strategies for growth locally.

Other voters, Keith Lockwood and Beth Backen, said they like the physical, community ritual of voting in-person over early drop-off options. “Everybody coming together at the same place, we still like that,” Backen said. She said her vote was particularly interested in efforts aimed at keeping money out of politics.

— Nick Mott

A volunteer with Yellowstone County Voices, which is collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would rein in the Quantica data center project near Broadview, posts up outside of event center MetraPark, the polling place forall of Billings. Yellowstone County Voices is aiming to put in place a measure requiring two-thirds support of voters for a data center to operate in the county. They’re hoping to qualify it for the May 2027 ballot. Per Elections Administrator Dayna Causby, those signature gatherers are permitted within 100 feet of the entrance, so long as they ask for signatures only after a voter has voted.

— Phoebe Tollefson

Voters steadily flow into the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds to cast their vote during the midterm election Nov. 3, 2026, in Helena. A nonpartisan observer watches nearby while election judges explain the ballot to voters.

— Lauren Miller

Election judges help a voter figure out why he wasn’t on the registration list as a line formed inside the polling place at the Missoula Public Library Tuesday morning. Kathi Olson, an election judge for many years, said the downtown location has seen steady traffic since 7 a.m. After a call to the Missoula County Election Center, the judges figured out how the voter could cast his ballot without driving across town. “The goal is to get everybody to legally vote,” Olson said.

— Katie Fairbanks

A couple of cheery election workers at the drive-up ballot drop today said they arrived at 6 a.m. and people were already waiting to vote. MetraPark is the only polling location for Yellowstone County voters inside Billings city limits. It’s busy. County elections staff grows from five full-time employees to 500 on Election Day, according to Elections Administrator Dayna Causby.

— Phoebe Tollefson

The Lewis and Clark County election office set up a drive-up ballot drop-off station across the road from the City-County Building on the corner of Lawrence Street and Park Avenue. So far, they received more than 100 ballots this morning.

“Everyone who has come up seems to be in good moods,” said election official Eileen Robbins.

The drive-up will be open until 8 p.m. tonight.

— JoVonne Wagner

Provisional election judge Roger Matthew prepares for his next voter at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds Tuesday morning. As voters trickled in, election officials chatted, snacked and worked on a puzzle to pass the time. During the first two hours of the day, only a handful of residents occupied voting stalls at a time in one of four rooms set up for voting.

— Nick Mott

As of 4:19 a.m. Tuesday, just over 62% of the 532,313 absentee ballots mailed to Montana voters had been returned, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s Office. The final absentee return rate in 2024 was just over 70%, down from about 80% in 2022. We’ll be watching whether that decline continues, even as absentee voting has become increasingly common in Montana since the early 2000s.

— Jacob Olness

First reports of election results could arrive hours after polls close in some of Montana’s high-voting counties. State law bars counties that count absentee ballots early from reporting results until their last voter has finished voting. The restriction, which was also in place in 2024, dates to a 2023 law governing counties that begin counting absentee ballots the day before Election Day.

Election administrators have said that long lines of people waiting to register and vote at 8 p.m. could delay the first results late into the night.

— Tom Lutey