With 1 week until Election Day, Montana absentee votes exceed 225,000

One week from Election Day, more than 209,000 Montanans have already cast their ballot this midterm. 

The Montana Secretary of State’s office sent out just under 525,000 absentee ballots to registered voters in October and as of Tuesday afternoon, 225,698 have been returned — roughly 43%.  

That number is tracking well ahead of the 2022 midterm election, when the state reported 284,000 absentee ballots were received by the day before Election Day. 

Montana’s electorate has grown every year since 2002, but saw a jump in registered voters in recent years following a surge of in-migration after the COVID-19 pandemic. Montana has roughly 5% more registered voters in the state compared to the 2022 midterm, with the Secretary of State’s Office reporting 805,418 registered voters as of Tuesday.

But overall voter turnout in 2022 was also historically low by Montana standards. Less than 500,000 voters cast ballots, the lowest number of midterm votes since 2004, according to data from the secretary of state. 

Current absentee votes received by Tuesday exceed 48% of the total votes cast in 2022. 

Compared to the 2018 midterm election, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, absentee ballots returned so far amount to 44% of total votes cast in 2018. 

Sheridan County leads with the highest percentage of absentee ballots with 51% of absentee ballots returned, followed by Lewis and Clark and Fergus counties at 48%. 

Missoula County leads among the state’s most populous counties with 47% of ballots returned. 

Roosevelt, Lincoln, Big Horn and Glacier counties have returned the lowest percentage of absentee ballots, with less than 33% returned to the state. 

Montana doesn’t require voters to register with a party affiliation, so early returns don’t offer much in the way of specific data points for contested partisan races. But nationwide in many states that do have party registration, Democratic voters lead in early returns. 

Absentee ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3.