Election Day Plus One

The counting continues in Gallatin County, and there's no decision in my race yet.

My fellow representative, Mike Phillips, gives this report:
I just returned from the Gallatin County courthouse. As of 8:30 a.m. about 15,000 votes were yet to be counted. Some of these (perhaps 1,500 or more) are from JP's district. We have reason to believe that a large number of these will come from pct. 25, which is a stronghold for Democrats (I won that pct. in 2004 and JP won that pct. in 2006). Consequently, there is a reasonable chance that she will eventually succeed in her re-election bid. Once she does, I understand we will have a 50:50 split in the House. Our clerk and recorder told me that she hopes to have unofficial vote totals by mid-afternoon.

As of 8:03 a.m. JP was down by 114 votes. The slow counting relates to a voting machine that is struggling to accept the paper upon which the ballots were printed. Many ballots have to be fed into the machine a second or third time. I volunteered to help count ballots but was denied because of my status of a candidate. I did stand and watch and saw a good number of people working very hard to get an accurate count assembled quickly. I'll relay new information as it becomes available. --Mike

At 2:40 a.m., the vote totals in my race for House District 63 were JP, 41; Burnett, 37.
At 4:30 a.m., JP, 162; Burnett, 153.
At 5:04 a.m., JP, 1635; Burnett, 1683 (33 of 46 precincts reporting).
At 6:37 a.m., JP, 1816; Burnett, 1930. (36 of 46 precincts reporting).
At 8:20 a.m., no change.

Stay tuned for updates!
Check here for numbers as they're known: http://sos.mt.gov/ELB/elections/2008/general/NonStatewideRaces/MTHouse/index.asp