A Recount in Butte, Nearly 3 Months After the Primary Election

8/21/24 Update- NBC Montana has this update: Butte recount completed with no major changes to results

*Watch for dating on this story, as the story will develop throughout the day/week. Originally published Tuesday morning as recount is underway.

A recount is taking place in Butte, Montana nearly three months after the primary election took place. Why is it just taking place now, and what triggered the recount in the first place? Here's what we heard from two leading state senators watching the recount in Butte.

Earlier Tuesday morning, I caught up with State Senator Mike Cuffe (R-Eureka) and State Senator Theresa Manzella (R-Hamilton). Both wanted to stress that Butte and Silver Bow county is not being targeted, and they thanked local elections officials for their cooperation. They also believe that more counties across Montana may have similar issues.

What triggered the recount? 

It was a citizen led effort.

State Sen. Manzella:  "We've got 56 counties that have 56 different processes. So we formed a citizens group, and we've got leads in 20 counties that are interfacing with their election administrators and building relationships. We bought a subscription to the voter rolls, and we're downloading that information daily, and that gives us the opportunity to watch the changes in the voter rolls. And it was actually that process and our data analyst Dave Nims who brought this to Linda's attention- brought the discrepancies between what they turned in as primary numbers as compared to what the Secretary of State's database shows."

What kind of numbers are we talking about here?

Sen. Manzella says Monday's tabulation shows that 200 ballots and potentially 1,000 votes will be looked at in the recount.

Could other counties have similar issues? 

I asked Sen. Cuffe how many other counties might have similar problems like what forced this recount. How many other counties could we be talking about having similar issues? He says that he and Sen. Manzella have discussed the number as high as 14 counties they suspect may have issues as of Tuesday morning.

Full audio of our chat with State Senators Mike Cuffe (R-Eureka) and Theresa Manzella (R-Hamilton) prior to the Tuesday morning recount: