11 May 2017 — 0733 mdt
Flathead has lowest absentee ballot return rate in Montana
Montana’s absentee voters had by 9 May returned 33.7 percent of the 346,916 absentee ballots sent out thus far in the special congressional election than ends on 25 May. Teton County, at 48.8 percent, had the highest rate of return, while at 11.9 percent Flathead County had the lowest — and the lowest by far. The next lowest, Missoula County, had a return rate almost ten percent higher. The Flathead’s return rate is so low that it could be a data reporting anomaly, but for now I accept the Montana Secretary of State’s numbers as accurate.
Update, 14 May. I revised the return rate graph by setting the lower bound of the X-axis to 100 instead of 400, and by adding a break on the Y-axis. On the absentee ballots sent as a percentage of registration graph, I placed an X-axis tick at the origin and added a label for the lower bound.
I’ve updated with 2017 special election numbers Flathead Memo’s master voting spreadsheet for Montana’s 1920–present turnout.