Flathead County election results delayed

Election results in Flathead County were held up Tuesday night by the large number of voters who showed up on Election Day to register, a ballot machine that broke down, a shortage of ballots at polling stations west of Kalispell, and a ballot left in a machine locked inside West Glacier School.

A total of 1,028 voters registered at the Flathead County Fairgrounds on Election Day, about 200 more than in 2008. Some people waited 3 1/2 hours to register during the day, and dozens were still in line when polls technically closed at 8 p.m.

The last of the late registrants finally entered the Country Fair Kitchen building at 9:32 p.m. The late voters delayed vote counting, and first results were not released until 11 p.m. About 24,000 absentee ballots had been counted by midnight.

A vote-counting machine also broke down. A repairman flew from Gallatin County to Missoula and drove to Flathead County but was “slowed down by deer,” according to Flathead County records preservation manager Jan Hardesty.

The machine was fixed late Tuesday night, but 9,000 ballots that had gone through that counter had to be recounted.

High voter turnout led to polling stations in Kila and Pleasant Valley to temporarily run out of ballots. And the West Glacier precinct was not counted at all Tuesday night because a card was left in a voting machine locked inside West Glacier School. About 200 West Glacier ballots were to be counted Wednesday.