7 November 2018 — 1306 mst

Second post-election roundup

Sen. Jon Tester now leads Matt Rosendale by approximately 7,000 votes with approximately 60,000 votes, mostly in heavily Democratic Gallatin and Missoula Counts, still not counted. The Associated Press has declared Tester the winner, Tester has claimed victory, and there are reports Rosendale has conceded.

The math favors Tester, but in elections this close, I prefer waiting until the last vote is counted, and the tally verified, before doing a victory dance and shouting Hallelujah!

Flathead results

Incumbent Democratic legislators Rep. Dave Fern (HD-5, Whitefish) and Rep. Zac Perry (HD-3, Columbia Falls) won their re-election campaigns, Perry by just 41 votes. Otherwise, it was a bloodbath for local Democratic candidates, not one of whom broke 40 percent. Most didn’t reach 35 percent, and several failed to break 30 percent despite working the doors with great energy, skill, and determination.

My personal thanks to all who ran. Today candidates and volunteers from all parties are removing yard signs on a cold, windy, snowy, day, some licking their wounds, others treating hangovers from too much celebrating.

The Flathead’s Democratic resistance cannot be happy, and surely is discouraged. I hope its members and leaders will keep fighting the good fight, as they’re the future of the progressive movement and it’s been a joy for this old-timer to work with bright, energetic, likable, young leaders like Shannon Hogue, Kwen Shirley, and JoBeth Blair. They give me hope that eventually we’ll take back our country from the right wing zealots who have temporarily seized it.

Slow reporting by the MT SecST

After the county elections administrators finish counting votes, they must forward the data to Helena in a format that can be converted to the MT SecST’s system. That introduces a delay, but it’s best to accept the delay as a reasonable price to pay for getting it right. The major news networks are getting their data directly from the counties, which is why they sometimes report ahead of SecST.

I can deal with that. What exasperates me is SecST and local elections administrators reporting data in a multitude of formats, and worse, failing to observe the rule first year programming students learn almost on the first day of school: only one data item per field. Some fields are cluttered with several data items, which must be separated and put into their own fields before the file can be analyzed fully. Montana’s elections administrators and SecST are observing worst data practices. That needs to stop.