Massive Voter Turnout in the Works Here in Montana

Will they paint the town red, or be singing the blues? We will soon find out...but check out the huge turnout at the Metra in Billings, Montana shortly after polls opened on election day.

I got a phone call from one of our listeners, Grandpa Lou in Billings, shortly after 7 a.m. when the polls opened in Billings. He said there were hundreds of people already lined up at the Metra in Billings. Another caller said he had already been waiting in line for at least 30 minutes.

Bruce in Ennis called in and talked about the long lines in Madison County. We had calls from across the state, and tweets from across the state, talking about the strong voter turnout.

Here's what I find really interesting: this is on top of the massive early vote turnout across the state.

As our colleague Travis Lee reported:  "As of Monday the 4th, 5:00 p.m., of the half million absentee ballots mailed out, 425,000 have been returned.  An unprecedented number of Montanans have spared themselves the time and hassle of Election Day voting and took care of their ballot choices early."

As State Rep. Jodee Etchart (R-Billings) pointed out, Yellowstone County alone had about 80% of absentee ballots already returned before election day.

Here's the original, unedited photo. Thanks to Larry Mayer for letting us share it on our radio station websites! Here is a link to Amy Nile's report for the Gazette.