Ballot counting went without a snag

published on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:53 PM MST

By AMANDA RICKER Chronicle Staff Writer

The ballot count in Tuesday’s all-mail election went smoothly, in sharp contrast to last year’s election, and Gallatin County’s top election official chalked it up to a new counting machine.

“It was a big success,” Gallatin County Election Administrator Charlotte Mills said Wednesday.

Last year, when a jammed counting machine caused Gallatin County to be one of the last places in the nation to report results for the presidential election, election officials were still counting votes counting 19 hours after the polls closed.

Mills spent 39 straight hours overseeing the counting process.

This year, Mills said the team of about 18 election workers didn’t run into any snags.

“I walked out of here at 11:30 p.m.,” Mills said.

The Gallatin County Election Department got a new counting machine in April. The machine cost $46,000.

Tuesday’s election was the first in Gallatin County where every city holding an election had at least one issue decided by mail ballot.

The elections workers ran 10,701 ballots through the county’s counting machines Tuesday night.

Mills said voting seemed to go smoothly for county residents, as well, judging by the fact that only about 20 ballots showed up late in the mail Wednesday.

In 2007, when some cities in the county held all-mail elections, about two tubs of late ballots arrived the next day, she said.

Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.

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