High voter turnout ends with a win for Barron, Taylor, McNeil and Baucus

Jessica Waters

Adding to record-high voter turnouts — not only nationally and statewide, but locally — thousands upon thousands of Lake County residents cast their ballots and played a part in a long list of decisions that will affect the county and its inhabitants into not only a new year, but — in many cases — into the dawn of a new century.

Following roughly with both national and Montana voting trends, a majority of votes in a high percentage of races fell on the Democratic side of the ballot. As a nation, voters selected the first-ever black president, voting strongly in favor of the Obama/Biden ticket over the that of McCain/Palin.

As McCain broadcast his concession speech near midnight, ballots continued to be tabulated for federal, state and local races. Lake County voters, often voting in favor of incumbent candidates, voiced their preference for Democrat John Fleming (State Representative District 12), but also elected Republicans John Brueggeman (State Senate District 6) and Janna Taylor (State Representative District11).

Voters, both locally and state-wide, struck down Ballot Issue C-44 (A legislative proposal allowing up to 25% of all public funds presently restricted to fixed income investments to be invested in private corporate capital stock,) but approved both Ballot Issue LR-118 (A legislative proposal to impose a levy of six mills for the support of the Montana university system) and I-155 (A citizen initiative to expand CHIP and Medicaid eligibility for uninsured children, coordinate children’s health coverage, and encourage enrollment of eligible children).

For more election information and result coverage, visit www.leaderadvertiser.com and read week’s Web Report for interviews with candidates and a discussion of what the election results mean to Lake County residents.

(Note: Election results statistics were received from the Lake County Election Office and the Montana Secretary of State. Please note that official results are not available until after the county and statewide canvasses are complete.)