Election administrator: Lincoln County canvass confirms municipal results, audit finds no discrepancies

The Lincoln County election administrator told commissioners during the canvass meeting that the county's municipal election tallies matched in-house counts and a follow-up audit, and that staff had posted the official totals online.

"We did send out 2,765 ballots and we received in 1,246," the Elections Administrator said while walking through packet statistics, and added that county turnout was about 45 percent. The packet showed 121 rejected ballots, 14 voided ballots and 127 undeliverable returns.

The administrator said counties coordinated with the Secretary of State and attorneys after a recent change initially requiring full birth dates on envelopes; the state approved stamping the year of birth on secrecy envelopes to reduce costs. "We got the approval to use a stamp this time," the administrator said.

Staff read precinct- and shift-level tallies for multiple municipalities, noting small provisional adjustments. In one larger municipality, staff said a mayoral candidate's totals rose from 401 to 402 after one provisional ballot was added. Officials reported 12 provisional ballots counted overall, limited to Libby and Eureka precincts.

Rexford's race fell within the trigger for a closer review. Under Senate Bill 57, races within one quarter of 1 percent can be audited if a council member requests a recount within five days. The administrator said county staff proactively ran an audit for Rexford and confirmed the election-night tally "came out correct" and matched during the audit.

Staff also flagged a write-in spelling issue that reduced the apparent total for one write-in candidate. The reader said a candidate had filed under an atypical alias (recorded on the form as "Katiec.morggan"), producing scattered spellings on return sheets and yielding nine recorded write-in votes in one tally that might have been reported under alternate spellings.

Officials described efforts to make results available promptly: the county posted official totals on its new website and on a county Facebook account and asked candidates and local organizations to repost to increase public awareness. Participants praised elections staff's work; one attendee said the process was "super super super smooth."

On policy and procedure, the administrator noted recent state-level changes and continued work with state attorneys and the Secretary of State's office, and observed that new late-registration rules (discussed as part of recent legislative changes) require counties to be open on weekends during some federal election periods to accommodate late registrants. ``We have to be open on the weekend now for them to do that,'' the administrator said, noting the additional staffing burden.

There were no formal motions or votes recorded during the canvass portion of the meeting. Staff will route the canvass documents for signature and release the certified results. The meeting adjourned after participants confirmed there were no discrepancies.