Sanders and Mineral Counties election results

Jamie Doran

Valley Press

By all accounts it was a historic Election Day. For one Sen. Barack Obama became the first black president in U.S. history and voter turnout was up all across the country, and Montana was no exception.

According to Sanders County Clerk and Recorder Jennine Robbins, voter turnout was up substantially over what is has been in past years.

“We have just seen a huge increase,” she said.

Mineral County Clerk and Recorder Katherine Jasper agreed. “We’ve never seen turnout like this in Mineral County, it was just phenomenal.”

In Mineral County there were 2,022 votes cast and Jasper said that although she didn’t have the numbers in front of her she new this was substantially more than what they usually see.

In Sanders County there were 7,126 registered voters and 5,928 ballots counted, an astonishing 83 percent turnout.

On the local side for Senate District 7 Republican Greg Hinkle defeated Democrat Paul Clark. Hinkle had 5,509 votes cast for him and Clark had 4,539. In Sanders County Hinkle defeated Clark by over 700 votes, 3,184 to 2,519. It was substantially closer in Mineral County with Hinkle only defeated Clark by 16 votes, 961 to 945.

For Sanders County Commissioner Republican Tony Cox defeated Democrat Cindy Iversen 4,197 votes to 1,512 votes. A 73 to 26 percent margin.

For Mineral County Commissioner Democrat Duane Simons defeated Republican Curtis Cochran in a closely contest election. Simons received 966 votes and Cochran received 944 votes.

For House District 13, which represents Sanders County incumbent Republican Pat Ingraham defeated Democrat Jim Elliott and Constitutionalist candidate Renn Bodeker. Ingraham had 3,143 votes cast for her, Elliott had 2,097 votes cast for him and Bodecker ended up collecting 150 votes.

For House District 14, which represents portions of Missoula and Sanders County as well as all of Mineral County, incumbent Republican Gordon Hendrick defeated his Democratic challenger Cindy Grimm. Hendrick collected a total of 3,041 votes and Grimm collected a total of 1,678 votes. In Sanders County Hendrick got 210 votes to Grimm’s 188 and in Mineral County Hendrick got 1380 votes to Grimm’s 585.

For District Court Judge, District 20 Department 1, incumbent C.B. McNeil defeated Joey Jayne 10,217 votes to 7,491. The District Court Judge position represents both Sanders and Lake Counties. In Sanders County McNeil received 3,132 votes and Jayne received 2,067 votes.

On the state level Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer was able to maintain his seat collecting 305,445 votes. Republican candidate Roy Brown received 153,476 and libertarian candidate Stan Jones collected 9,490 votes. In Mineral County Schweitzer received 1,275 votes, Brown received 657 votes and Jones received 59 votes. In Sanders County Schweitzer received 3,417 votes, Brown received 2,196 and Jones received 166 votes.

For Secretary of State Democrat Linda McCulloch defeated incumbent Republican Brad Johnson and Constitutionalist candidate Sharbono. State-wide McCulloch received 223,611 votes, Johnson received 221,431 votes and Sharbono received 11,127 votes. In Mineral County McCulloch received 938 votes, Johnson got 896 votes and Sharbono got 76 votes. For Sanders County McCulloch got 2,268 votes, Johnson got 3,083 votes and Sharbono got 215 votes.

For Montana Attorney General, Democrat Steve Bullock defeated Republican Tim Fox. State-wide Bullock collected 234,428 votes and Fox got 214,800 votes. In Mineral County both candidates received 951 votes and in Sanders County Bullock received 2,243 votes and Fox received 3280 votes.

Democrat Monica Lindeen defeated Republican Duane Grimes for Montana State Auditor. Overall Lindeen collected 236,141 votes and Grimes collected 207,701 votes. In Mineral County Lindeen barely edged out Grimes collecting 940 votes to his 933. In Sanders County Lindeen received 2,353 votes and Grimes received 3,032 votes.

For Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Democrat Denise Juneau defeated Republican Elaine Herman and Libertarian Donald Eisenmenger. Overall Juneau had 224,264 votes, Herman had 195,117 votes and Eisenmenger had 23,155 votes. In Mineral County Juneau received 913 votes, Herman received 802 votes and Eisenmenger received 138 votes. In Sanders County Juneau got 2,200 votes, Herman got 2,867 votes and Eisenmenger got 360 votes.

On the national side, Montana voted for Republican Sen. John McCain for President over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. McCain carried Mineral and Sanders Counties.

For the United States Senate incumbent Democrat Max Baucus defeated Republican Bob Kelleher 334,030 to 125,178. Baucus carried Mineral County with 1,326 votes compared to Kelleher’s 623 votes. Baucus also carried Sanders County 3,357 to 2,342.

For the U.S. House, incumbent Republican Denny Rehberg defeated Democrat John Driscoll and Libertarian Mike Fellows. Rehberg received 299,449 votes, Driscoll received 147,778 votes and Fellows received 15,615 votes. Rehberg carried Mineral County with 1,295 votes, Driscoll had 579 votes and Fellows had 87 votes. In Sanders County Rehberg got 3,932 votes, Driscoll got 1,524 votes and Fellows got 251 votes.