A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

22 September 2016

Registered voter variations in Montana’most populous counties

Seventy-five percent of Montana’s registered voters are concentrated in just eleven of the state’s 56 counties. Montana’s Secretary of State now publishes online a spreadsheet with county level data for registration and ballots cast for primary and general election for 1992 through the present.

Here’s what the big county registration totals look like graphically. Note the dramatic increase in Gallatin County, the steady increase in Flathead County, the decreases in Cascade and Silver Bow Counties, and the pronounced election-to-election variations in Missoula County.

Ignore the numbers for 2000, when there was so much deadwood on the registration rolls that the number of registered voters exceeded the state’s voting eligible population.

My thanks to Bob Williams for directing my attention to the interesting variations in Missoula County’s totals.