Jefferson County Voter Turnout Lower Than Anticipated

Clerk and Recorder Ginger Kunz had a hard time believing her eyes when she saw voter turnout in Jefferson County was only 69%.

“We were so busy,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘oh, my gosh, this is a great turnout. Then it’s all said and done and I was like, ‘69 percent?’ I swore we would have been closer to 80%, but I know that’s just tunnel vision since I’ve been hearing from 6,000 voters.”

Out of 9,479 registered voters in the county, only 6,532 submitted ballots, including the 140 provisional ballots that were determined Nov. 14.

It’s not at all unusual for a midterm election to see a lower turnout. Nationwide, participation tends to be about 40% in midterm votes, compared to 60% in Presidential elections.

But the county’s 69% turnout represents a decline from the last midterm, in 2018, when 78 percent of voters submitted ballots; this year’s voting participation was just a little over the 2014 rate of 67 percent.

The decline from 2018 reflected a broader trend. Statewide, 61% of registered voters turned out on Nov. 8, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s office, down from 72% in 2018. Nationwide, the count likewise appears to have dipped from 2018’s modern high-water mark of 50%.

For Jefferson County voters, location doesn’t appear to have been a factor, as 64% of registered voters in Boulder cast their ballots (881 out of 1,379) while 66.5% of Whitehall registered voters cast their ballots (1,750 out of 2,633). The town with the highest voter turnout was Montana City, with 74% at precinct 10 (1,017 out of 1,382) and 73% percent at precinct 9 (917 out of 1,254).

Of these numbers, the largest demographic of registered voters was between 61-80 (3,489 registered) and 46-60 (2,428 registered). Younger voters were largely outnumbered, as there were only 478 between the ages 26 to 30 and only 571 registered voters between ages 31 and 35 and only.

Historically, many factors have been shown to affect voter turnout. Bad weather on Election Day can keep people from the polls. Voters may stay home if they think races aren’t competitive, if candidates haven’t campaigned extensively in their communities, or if they feel exhausted by too much campaigning.

Kunz said she doesn’t have the answer to why only 69% of registered voters showed up this year. She doesn’t think it was about a decline of faith in the election system. “I think if voters in Jefferson County didn’t trust the system they’d still vote,” she said.

But voters this year did appear to have concerns about absentee ballots.

“A lot of the provisional ballots we had were people who were on the absentee list, and they were on the absentee list because they checked a box on a form that said, ‘yes, I request an absentee ballot to be mailed to me for all elections.’ But we had a number of people who said they never signed up for this, threw their ballots away and went to the polls,” Kunz said. “That’s fine, but then those voters have to vote provisionally and their vote isn’t counted until the Monday after the election.”

There were others, Kunz added, who wanted to take their absentee ballots to the polls. However, they’d already voted absentee and brought their sealed ballots. Kunz asked them if they’d made a mistake on the ballots, and they just wanted to vote using in-person ballots instead.

“I said, ‘OK, well, I can void these but I’m going to go to the same stack of ballots these came from and issue you a replacement,’” Kunz said. “They wanted to know if they were all counted the same, and I said, ‘yes, they’re the same stack of ballots.’

Kunz said this distrust with the absentee ballot system appears to be trickling down from the national level. Kunz said she and her staff try to inform those concerned there is nothing to worry about.

“I tell them the ballots are numbered one through 1,000. Our militaries go out, then absentees go out and then the rest go to the polls,” she said. “They’re the same thing, and they are all counted on Election Day.”

In Kunz’s experience, those who are skeptical about the process are often the ones who make the best election judges.

“I think the reason a lot of people sign up to be election judges is because they don’t trust the process,” she said, “and I feel after the training for election judges they feel more confident about it.”

Some 25 new people participated in training last spring to be election judges, Kunz said, and many of those served as judges on Nov. 8. “They were here until four in the morning,” Kunz said. “That’s dedication.”

There are many judges who have helped out on a consistent basis through the years, and Kunz said she’s tremendously thankful for all of them.

“Gary and Marilyn Craft have worked elections longer than I have, and they keep showing up,” Kunz said. “Barb Reiter also keeps coming out, and judges like Heidi Oetken – who started in June – seem to really be enjoying it and bring a lot of enthusiasm. There are so many who help out and do a great job all over the county.”

A lot of the voters of Jefferson County take their civic responsibility seriously, Kunz added, which is why she is surprised by the 31% that didn’t vote. She doesn’t like to admit voter apathy is a factor, but understands it’s a reality.

But perhaps the issue isn’t so much apathetic voters as it is uninformed voters, Kunz said. During this particular election season, Kunz said one frustration many voters appeared to have was that they couldn’t vote for Ryan Zinke or Monica Tranel in the western congressional district. With the creation this year of a second Congressional district, Jefferson County was assigned to the state’s eastern district, which incumbent Matt Rosendale won handily.

“People would call and ask me ‘why didn’t you put Ryan Zinke or Monica Tranel on my ballot? I wanted to vote for one of them,” Kunz said. “That confusion seemed to affect Jefferson County voters.”

The job of educating the public is constant, Kunz said.

“I hear [Secretary of State] Christi Jacobsen on the radio, and her office sends out mailers,” Kunz said. “I feel like every time you turn around there is voter information out there. And, by law, we are required to put the election processes in the newspaper, both Boulder and Whitehall. There are all kinds of places to collect information about candidates. So, as far as how you get [more] information to the voters, I don’t know.”

Frustrations aside, Kunz said she is not going to give up on informing the public about how to vote and why it’s important to vote. She believes in the people of Jefferson County and will continue to encourage them to participate in the democratic process.

“I would like to say, the residents of Jefferson County should be proud of themselves and their neighbors,” Kunz said. “Approximately 6,400 Jefferson County residents voted and around 75 people worked together as judges to make the election happen. That makes me proud to live here and work for such amazing people.”