HELENA — It’s typical for voter turnout to be lower during midterm elections, when people aren’t choosing a president. So far this year, that pattern is holding in Montana.
As of Friday morning, 528,918 ballots had already been given out to voters across Montana, either by mail or to those registering at their county election offices. 52% of those ballots have already been received, meaning 34% – just over a third – of registered voters have turned their ballot in already.
(Watch the video for more on how Montana's voter turnout numbers are shaping up.)
Those numbers are right on pace with the same point in the 2022 general election – the last time there wasn’t a presidential race on the ballot. That year, 51% of early ballots were in by the Friday before Election Day, and turnout to that point was again 34%. The final voter turnout in 2022 was 61%.
“Montana's always had pretty high voter turnout, and it tends to be one of the highest states in midterm elections,” said Jeremy Johnson, a Carroll College professor and chair of the college’s Department of Political Science.
Turnout is still lagging compared with the 2024 presidential election. As of the Friday before that election, 67% of early ballots were already in, for a turnout of 46%.
Johnson says Montana’s numbers so far appear to be in line with what’s expected. One notable difference between 2022 and 2026, though, is that there is a U.S. Senate race on the ballot this year. In 2022, neither of Montana’s senators was up for election, nor was the governor.
“In the Senate race, we've seen it's been more complicated than usual,” said Johnson, noting the four-way race and the presence of a prominent independent. “We’ve not had the same level of just massive spending.”
Johnson says it’s too early to predict exactly where turnout could end up, since we won’t know whether the same trends will hold for voters going to the polls on Tuesday.
“That’s when the campaigns really matter, if they can get out the vote on Election Day,” he said.
Lewis and Clark County Treasurer-Clerk and Recorder Amy Reeves, the county’s election administrator, says her office has been working to get ready for voters up to and on Tuesday.
“We were hoping to have a good turnout this year,” she said. “We did extend our hours to try to get people to come in and register early, so that they could avoid those long lines on Election Day.”
The Lewis and Clark County elections office will remain open for ballot dropoff from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Because of a state court ruling earlier this year, prospective voters will be able to register at election offices until noon Monday and until the close of polls at 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Lewis and Clark County has already received ballots from 40% of its registered voters, the highest percentage of any county in the state. 39% of voters in Missoula County have their ballots in already, and 38% of those registered in Yellowstone County have already voted. So far, turnout remains lowest in three Eastern Montana counties: Big Horn at 15%, Roosevelt at 15% and Richland at 17%.
While Glacier County remains among the lowest return rates, with 43% of early ballots turned in and turnout of 23% so far, it has actually seen the biggest increase of any county compared with the same time in 2022. In that election, only 26% of ballots had been returned by Friday, for a turnout of 15%.
Other counties that have seen higher return rates compared with 2022 include Blaine County, Musselshell County and Flathead County – where President Donald Trump urged Republican voters to turn out during a campaign rally earlier this month, telling them to “remember I am on the ballot.”
The counties reporting the largest decrease in ballot return rates compared with 2022 are mostly rural and in central and eastern Montana. In Treasure County, 54% of early ballots were reported in as of Friday, compared with 72% at the same point four years ago. Other counties with lower return rates so far this year include McCone County, Judith Basin County and Golden Valley County.
If you have a mail ballot and haven't turned it in yet, it's too late to get it in the mail now. You will need to bring it to your county elections office either Monday or Tuesday, or you can bring it to a polling place on Tuesday. However, Reeves said officials are warning voters that, if they turn in their mail ballots at a polling place, their online voter information page likely won’t confirm their ballot was counted until after the polls are closed.
There’s also a change to mail ballot rules since the June primary, as a district judge blocked a state law that requires voters to fill in their birth year on a mail ballot envelope. While election officials are currently accepting ballots that don’t include a birth year, Reeves said her office is encouraging voters to still fill it in, in case of a future court ruling reinstating the requirement.
