We Found Something Montana Democrats and Republicans Can Agree On

With less than a week to go until primary election day in Montana, I think we finally found something that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. If you haven't already mailed your absentee ballot- hand carry that bad boy into your local elections office.

Here's the deal, if you send your absentee ballot in through the mail it may not get to the elections office in time for election night.

I noticed several friends from both political parties share that message via X over the last couple days. Former capitol reporter Mike Dennison added this: "In MT, absentee ballots postmarked before Election Day DO NOT count if they arrive after Election Day. Bring your ballot to a drop off box!"

Speaking of absentee ballots, it looks like there are a LOT of people still waiting to cast their ballots, according to info on the Montana Secretary of State's website. (Checked just before noon on Wednesday)

In Yellowstone County, a little over 70,000 ballots were sent out and only 22,508 have been received. That amounts to about 32% of ballots returned.

For some of the other large counties like Gallatin, Missoula, and the Flathead there seems to be similar response rates between 23% and 28% of ballots returned. Silver Bow's response rate is already nearly 40%.  Sheridan County looks to have the best response rate so far with 42.71% of ballots returned.

Some of the more notable races on the ballot this year include the Presidential race, the US Senate race, two US House races, and two Montana Supreme Court seats. That's in addition to competitive primaries for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, State Auditor, seats in the state legislature, the Public Service Commission, and more.