Welcome to November! Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Election Day is Tuesday
- Montana Millionaire Mess
- One More Thing
ELECTION DAY IS TUESDAY:
With Election Day 2026 on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, I want to say a big thank you to all the candidates running for office. Running a campaign takes immense hard work and heart, and our communities are better because you’re willing to serve.
Please make sure you vote! I turned in my ballot on Friday morning.
I believe nationally we will see a shift in who controls the U.S. House and maybe who controls the U.S. Senate. That will help curtail the MAGA cult that has wreaked havoc on our country.
The MAGA cult won’t go away easily. They will file lawsuits and open investigations. (Source)
We may not see a big shift of power in Montana, but we can look forward to the MAGA Republicans and the “Solutions Caucus” Republicans fighting it out in the state legislature come January.
A good thing to consider: come Wednesday, every single politician will ghost us.
MONTANA MILLIONAIRE MESS:
I arrived at a local Town Pump store in Great Falls around 4:40 a.m. on Sunday, getting ready to purchase Montana Millionaire tickets at 5:30 a.m. I was the fourth person in line.
At 5:30 a.m., they started selling tickets, and the first person in line was buying 50 tickets. He paid, and the printing started. A few tickets were printed, and he won an instant prize of $100. A few more were printed, and he won another $100 instant prize.
After about 13 tickets were printed, the printing stopped. In the next four hours, only one more ticket was printed.
Supposedly, there were a lot of instant winners of $500 and $100 across the state, although there were not many tickets sold. The Montana Lottery posted a few messages about “technical issues.” Here is part of one of their last messages:
Due to continued technical issues affecting Montana Millionaire, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the game. A new sales date and time will be announced once the technical issues have been fully resolved and the Montana Lottery can ensure that all sales and game data have been properly validated.
Finally, around 8:30 a.m., after standing in line for several hours, I left.
Montana Millionaire is the biggest lottery event of the year in Montana. It’s unbelievable that lottery officials managed to botch something this significant so badly. What a spectacular failure in planning and execution.
ONE MORE THING:
My friend David had his ID stolen. Now he’s just Dav.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##
