HELENA – Secretary of State Linda McCulloch says a record number of people voted by absentee ballot this election.
Overall voter turnout for Tuesday’s election was just under 56 percent with 363,888 votes cast. McCulloch says 47 percent of those votes were cast by absentee ballot.
She says that’s a record for the state. She credits absentee voters with contributing to a higher overall turnout compared to the last time Montana’s congressional race was at the top of the ticket.
Turnout in that election, in 1998, was 53 percent.
The totals don’t count provisional ballots or federal write-in absentee ballots, which under law cannot be counted until after Nov. 8.