A Look At Election Results

The general election last week saw a 90% voter turnout in Powder River County, as 1,123 of 1,249 registered voters cast their ballots on or before election day. Absentee voters accounted for 690 of those 1,123 votes, for 61% of the total votes returned. 94% of absentee ballots sent out were returned.

Statewide, 494,821 absentee ballots were returned. 597,525 out of 802,206 registered voters in the state cast their ballots in total, for a statewide turnout of 74%. Looking back at previous elections, the 2016 election had 74%, 2018 had 72%, 2020 81%, and 2022 had 61%. Turnout trends tend to be higher on presidential election years.

Overall, Powder River County’s voting trends tended to follow the trend of the rest of the state. For example, in PR County, Donald Trump accounted for 963, or 87% of ballots cast for President. Kamala Harris had 131 votes, or 12%. Chase Oliver had 5, Jill Stein 1, and Robert Kennedy, Jr. had 6.

Statewide, Trump had 58% of the vote, or 343,049 votes. Harris had 38%, or 225,267. The remaining three candidates totaled 18,330 votes.

In the US Senate race, Tim Sheehy beat Jon Tester in PR County and in the state. Sid Daoud also accounted for 1% of the vote. In the campaigns between Sheehy and Tester, over $255 million was spent on the race. When compared to the number of ballots cast for the two candidates (312,070 for Sheehy, 267,983 for Tester), those campaigns spent roughly $440 per voter.

Of the three ballot issues on the ballot, PR County differed from the statewide election on CI-128, the constitutional amendment for abortion rights. While that measure garnered 425 votes for (40%) and 645 against (60%) in the county, the measure was more popular statewide, garnering 336,459 votes for (58%) and 247,303 against (42%). The other two ballot measures – CI-126, calling for a top four primary and Ci-127 calling for a majority vote required instead of a plurality, both failed; the first by a 49%-51% margin, or 15,583 votes, and the second by a 39%-61% margin.

The results will be canvassed and certified on November 18th.

 

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