Campaign 2012

All ballots counted in MT, Juneau still leads Welch

Posted: Nov 14, 2012 8:26 PM by Marnee Banks - MTN News
Updated: Nov 14, 2012 8:27 PM

HELENA - Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch announced on Wednesday afternoon that county election offices have officially finished counting ballots from last week's election.

There is only one race which qualifies for a recount and that is the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction between incumbent Denise Juneau (D) and challenger Sandy Welch (R).

After all the provisional ballots were counted, Juneau leads Welch by 2,264 votes, a difference of just 0.48 percentage points.

The final tally has Juneau with 235,468 votes (50.24%), and Welch with 233,204 (49.76%).

Welch's campaign manager Mitch Staley says they are still making plans to request a recount.

Juneau says if the recount moves forward she will have a team ready to deal with it and she is confident she will maintain her winning position.

Because the margin is between 0.5% and 0.25% the candidate must request a recount and also pay for it.

McCulloch's office is preparing a cost estimate for the Welch campaign.