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Gallatin County canvassers certify May 5 special‑district election results, approve creation of Big Sky Hospital Wellness District
Summary
Gallatin County canvassers on May 18 accepted voter‑reconciliation and discrepancy reports, certified multiple special‑district election results from the May 5 election and forwarded a resolution to the County Commission to establish the Big Sky Hospital Wellness District after a 847–67 favorable vote on creation.
The Gallatin County Board of County Canvassers met May 18 to review and certify results from the May 5 special‑district election and to accept the election office’s reconciliations and discrepancy report.
Election Manager Jasmine Hall told the board the office issued 76,333 ballots in the system snapshot and, after manually tracking out‑of‑county ballots, recorded 78,130 total issued including out‑of‑county styles. "Altogether, we issued 76,333 ballots. We accepted 26,010 ballots, rejected 745 ballots," Hall said, explaining that 575 of the rejections were for missing year of birth and that staff were able to resolve 434 ballots during the cure period.
The canvassers accepted the voter‑reconciliation report and the ballot discrepancy report. Hall said routine, small style‑level plus/minus discrepancies were investigated and largely attributable to a tabulator that failed after counting roughly 7,600 ballots; staff recounted those ballots on another machine and reconciled the differences. The board concluded the machine‑to‑machine discrepancies did not affect election outcomes.
Votes at a glance: the canvassers certified results for multiple special‑purpose districts, including: - Central Valley Fire District (certified; board declared Joel Fassbinder and Ron Murray the winners after a review found a net two‑ballot discrepancy that would not change the outcome). - Big Sky Hospital Wellness District—creation (certified as passing by canvassers; the creation measure was read as 847 in favor, 67 against) and trustee election (top three trustees certified as read). - Big Sky Resort Area District directors (certified). - Hebgen Basin Hospital trustees (certified). - Hebgen Basin Resort Area retention and resort‑tax use clarification (retention certified; resort‑tax use clarification certified as passing). The canvassers also read and approved a list of uncontested rural fire and water/sewer district candidates to be acclaimed because those contests did not meet the threshold to appear on the ballot.
Board procedure and next steps: after the canvassers certified the Big Sky Hospital Wellness District creation at the canvass meeting, the matter moved to the Gallatin County Commission, which approved a resolution certifying the favorable vote (resolution number not specified in the transcript). The commission recorded the resolution vote as passing 2–0 with no public comment at the hearing.
The canvassers voted on each certification by motion; multiple motions passed unanimously (recorded as 3–0 at the canvass meeting). Hall provided the canvassers with reconciliation and summary reports and explained the manual tracking used for out‑of‑county ballots and the process used to locate and explain style‑level discrepancies.
The meeting closed with no public comment and routine adjournment. The canvassers signed the required reconciliation and discrepancy documents as provided by the election office.
Clarifying note: the transcript contains a minor inconsistency in the spelling of one certified candidate’s surname (appearing as both "Fassenbinder" and "Fassbinder"); the canvass record should be checked for the official spelling when preparing final certificates.
