HELENA — With one day to go in Helena and East Helena’s municipal elections, Lewis and Clark County officials say they saw a steady flow of voters coming in to drop off their ballots throughout the day Monday.
As of noon on Monday, election officials had accepted 7,553 ballots, about 35% of the 21,220 that were mailed out. That means overall, just over 30% of the eligible voters in Helena and East Helena have already voted – but that’s likely to rise significantly before the end of the day Tuesday.
(Watch the video for more on the updated turnout figures.)
The number of rejected ballots in the county has remained relatively low, with only 46 still not being counted.
In September, the county reported turnout of almost 52% in the municipal primary election, which also included a closely watched special election for Helena Public Schools’ bond proposals. As of the day before the election, about 45% of the ballots sent out had already been returned.
Almost 18,000 more voters were eligible to participate in that election than in this one, because it included areas like the Helena Valley that are in the Helena School District but aren’t in Helena or East Helena city limits.
Voters in Helena will be choosing one of two candidates to become the city’s next mayor and selecting two city commissioners out of four candidates:
- Helena mayoral candidates Andy Shirtliff and Emily Dean
- Helena City Commission candidate Haley McKnight
- Helena City Commission candidate Melinda Reed
- Helena City Commission candidate Ben Rigby
- Helena City Commission candidate Shawn White Wolf
In East Helena, the mayor’s seat and two city council seats are open, but only the incumbents – Kelly Harris, Judy Leland and Don Dahl – filed to appear on the ballot.
In 2021 and 2017, the last two municipal elections where Helena and East Helena mayors were up for election, Lewis and Clark County reported around 48% turnout in each general election.
As a reminder, it's too late to put your ballots in the mail, if you haven't already returned them. You'll need to bring them down to the county elections office in person to drop them off. Voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to get their ballots turned in.
