Powder River Examiner -

In local elections, John Olson won the County Commissioner race against Incumbent Rod Schaffer. Olson, an Independent, picked up 603 votes, compared to Republican candidate Schaffer’s 492 votes. Schaffer narrowly won the primary election over challenger Ted Amsden by a margin of 48 votes.

Vanna Byrd will be the next Clerk of District Court, as she garnered 1051 votes in an uncontested election.

Overall turnout in the county was quite impressive – 1148 out of 1337 registered voters case ballots in the election, for an 86% turnout.

Powder River County was one of only 10 Montana counties to hold an in-person election, with the other 46 counties conducting their elections by mail-in vote only.

In Powder River County, 750 out of the 1148 voters cast their ballots via absentee ballot, either mailing or walking their ballots into the office. The remaining 398 voters cast their votes at the polls on November 3rd.

In state and federal elections, Powder River County voters cast their ballots at high rates for the Republican candidates, for example, 84% of votes cast in county went for Trump in the election.

Constitutional Initiative 118, which would legalize recreational marijuana use, was a fairly close vote in the county, with 45% of voters in favor of the measure. The initiative passed statewide, with 58% of Montana voters in favor.

Statewide, Montana had an 81% turnout in the general election. For full election results in the county broken down by precinct, please consult last week’s paper.

The current plan is for the county election results to be canvassed and certified by the commissioners on November 16th.