We made it – today is Election Day 2024. Make sure you vote! Thanks to all the candidates who ran for office. Thanks to the people working at the polls. Please read the Election Night section to see what I will be doing on election night. 

Here are the topics for today’s column: 

• Ballot Issues (Update)
• Sheehy Cancels Interview
• Election Night

BALLOT ISSUES (UPDATE):

On Saturday I was made aware of possible issues with ballots in Cascade County. An email was sent to the Cascade County Commissioners with this information:  

This email is a follow-up to voter issue you folks were made aware of yesterday afternoon, regarding a voter that lives in HD19 but received a ballot for HD24. This does not appear to be an isolated incident. Our independent research would indicate this is a systemic problem and there are hundreds of voters in Cascade County that have or will receive an incorrect ballot. This will affect all house district races in Cascade County and likely other counties throughout the state.

I wrote about it yesterday and today the local press reported about it. 

MTN News is reporting on the story:

On Friday, a Cascade County citizen reported that they received the wrong ballot, and several others have voiced similar concerns.

The Secretary of State looked into it, and found that the person’s home was pinned incorrectly in the ElectMT system.

The Secretary of State is looking into how many people could potentially have been affected, but Cascade County Elections Administrator Terry Thompson says it was “minuscule.”

Thompson said, “I don’t know fully the quantity yet, I’m going to tell you that I do know that it’s very minuscule. It’s not hundreds of ballots that have been given out wrong”

I’m not sure I would say it was “minuscule” in one sentence and then say, “I don’t know fully the quantity yet…” in the next sentence. 

I don’t have a lot of confidence in the Cascade County Elections office. 

The bad thing I learned from the reporting is that if the people already voted there is no way to recast their vote. That may be a major issue if a race is close.

You can read the MTN report HERE.

SHEEHY CANCELS INTERVIEW:

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle tried to schedule an interview with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, but he canceled. U.S. Senator Jon Tester did the interview. 

The Chronicle reported:

This past weekend, Sheehy agreed to a 10–15 minute interview after his campaign event in Manhattan but his spokesman told a Chronicle reporter who went there to meet him he was canceling as he was leaving.  

Once again, Sheehy ran like a chicken.

Tester was asked about a comment made by Sheehy that the press was unfair to him. Here is his reply:

What you need to understand when you’re running for public office is there are no secrets in your life, none, zero, nada, kaput. Everything is an open book. I wasn’t running his business when it lost millions of dollars. That’s just a fact. You can’t hide that kind of stuff. It comes in the public conversation when you’re running for a public office like the United States Senate. I don’t know that Tim really understood that. I don’t know that he understood that his entire life was going to be under scrutiny, just like mine is. There are no secrets. Unfair or not unfair, I don’t know, I wish there was less money in these campaigns. 

Steve Daines made some negative comments about Tester voting against Trump and voting with Biden. Tester responded:

I got more bills signed by President Trump than anybody else in the delegation and Steve Daines was there during that whole time — 20 bills in total. It’s why I’m one of the most bipartisan senators. Daines knows damn well they can’t beat Jon Tester. He knows damn well and his main goal here is to try to beat Jon Tester. That’s why he took the job as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and he’s been less than truthful about everything that’s come down the pipe — not just a few things, everything.

I think Daines is worthless as a U.S. Senator. He reminds me of the cowardly lion. I hope he is defeated in 2026. 

You can read the whole article HERE. 

ELECTION NIGHT:

We finally made it to Election Day 2024. There was only one piece of mail in my mailbox today and it was not political! I already voted. I split my ticket again with Democrats and Republicans getting my vote. 

I will be monitoring the races throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. I will be posting information on Twitter @TheWesternWord and on The Western Word Facebook page. 

If major news breaks, it will be posted on The Western Word blog. 

Please don’t forget to vote. 

## VOTE ## VOTE ## VOTE ##