Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

Valley County Election Analysis 2018

From the top of the ticket down, Valley County voted predominantly Republican and largely voted down initiatives that would have added regulation to businesses or increased taxation on consumers. Voter turnout was also at a recent high for a mid-term election and Valley County has a high-ration of Libertarian voters when compared to the rest of the state.

State Auditor Republican Matt Rosendale claimed 55 percent of the vote with 2,130 votes. Democrat Jon Tester, who claimed the state-wide race, received 40 percent of Valley County’s votes cast with 1,538. Libertarian Rick Breckenridge claiming five percent of total county voters with 199 total votes. Of note, this was not Jon Tester’s best showing in the county, as in 2012 Tester received 45 percent of the county’s votes with 1,749 against, then Congressman Denny Rehberg who claimed 47 percent of the total vote with 1,824.

Incumbent Congressman Greg Gianforte (R) had an easier time winning in Valley County, as he claimed 63 percent of the vote with 2,434 votes cast in his name. Kathleen Williams (D) under-performed when compared to Jon Tester and only claimed 32 percent of the vote. Libertarian Elinor Swanson claimed five percent of the vote. Notably, Greg Gianforte also claimed 63 percent of the local vote in the 2017 special election against Rob Quist (D) and Mark Wicks (L).

Also remarkable in the Valley County vote analysis was that over five percent of the county voted for the Libertarian candidate in both House and Senate elections. This is the highest turnout for a Libertarian candidate, percentage-wise, than any other county in the state. Valley County has a consistently high voter turnout for Libertarian candidates and in the 2017 special election for House of Representatives over nine percent of the county voted in favor of Mark Wicks.

On the ballot initiative side of the house, Valley County voted in favor of LR-128, the 6 – mill levy for the Montana University System, with a margin of 54 percent in favor to 46 percent against. On LR-129, the prohibition of ballot collection by certain individuals, the county voted in favor by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent, despite the fact that a massive amount of voters voted via absentee ballot in the county. In all 3,177 voters in the county cast their ballots by absentee, which is over 81 percent of all votes cast.

On I-185, an initiative to raise the tobacco tax to fund health care programs, the county widely voted down the measure with a ratio of 65 percent to 35 percent, despite being forced to vote in a hospital district earlier this year to maintain Valley View Nursing Home as a result of a lack of Medicaid funding for the home’s operations.

The county also voted against I-186 by an overwhelming majority of 72 percent of the vote to 28 percent of the vote. That initiative would have denied hard rock mine permits if the company was unable to show that the water system would not require perpetual treatment. Many industry advocates and business advocates in the state argued that the regulation was ambiguous, unobtainable and in effect a prohibition on all future mines in the state.

In total, 3,910 voters cast ballots in Valley County out of 4,919 registered voters for a total turnout of nearly 79.5 percent. This is the highest mid-term voter turnout since the 1994 mid-term election during Bill Clinton’s first presidency. For comparison, the average voter turnout in the county for a mid-term is 74 percent and during the 2016 presidential election the county’s turnout was 83 percent. According to national media outlets, voter turnout in the 2018 mid-term nationwide was the highest of any mid-term in the nation’s history. Montana saw a state-wide turnout of 60.2 percent, making it fifth in voter turnout nationwide with Minnesota at 64.2 percent, Colorado at 62.1 and Wisconsin and Oregon tied at 61.2 percent. Louisiana had the lowest voter turnout with 35.4 percent.

 

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