Please Help!
The Montana senate race is on hold because of errors in the vote count in the state's most populous county - Yellowstone County. The suspect total for Yellowstone County - 36,228 - compared to 2004 total - 66,286 - shows a 45.3% decline.
But something identical has happened with Silver Bow County - Montana's most Democratic county. The numbers were slow in coming in - - then all of a sudden they were at 100%. The preliminary total for Silver Bow County - 9,935 - compared to 2004 total - 16,084 - shows a 38.2% decline.
I called Montana Dem headquarters and they said, "We're tired."
I tried leaving messages but all the various mailboxes are full.
I have sent an e-mail to the Tester campaign.
Even though Silver Bow County has far fewer people than Yellowstone County - it is very Democratic and could offer Tester a 10,000 vote margin. Butte has the oldest unions in Montana - it is very highly organized. I cannot see why such a community would show such huge drop when the statewide decline between the presidential race in 2004 and this year's off-year race is between 10% and 20% depending on the county.
Look at other counties with larger cities.
By comparison:
Missoula County > -12.5%
Lewis & Clark County > 11.5%
Yes, why would Yellowstone County have a 45% decline?
But also, why would Silver Bow County have a 38% decline???
Please help get this info to someone in the know!!
Update The Montana Democratic Party acknowledges that there seem to be 4000 mising votes in Butte (Silver Bow County).