Montana Secretary of State and Chief Elections Officer Linda McCulloch received word from the Eleventh District Court at 3pm Tuesday that Sandy Welch was withdrawing her application for a recount of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Race. Welch trailed democrat incumbent Denise Juneau by 2231 votes after the official statewide canvass. “We are disappointed that there will not be a recount, ” said McCulloch.
“We were ready, counties were ready. We are confident that a recount would not have changed the race results, but we were ready to do one,” explained McCulloch.
McCulloch also pointed out that a lot of public time and resources has been spent preparing for the huge task of conducting a statewide recount of more than 468,000 ballots cast in the OPI race.
“County election administrators have been extremely cooperative and professional as the days and weeks passed while we waited for a petition for recount to be filed, waited through a court hearing, and waited for the cash payment of the costs to Montana taxpayers of the recount,” McCulloch said.
Full Article: Secretary of State reacts to canceled recount | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana.