The Daily Inter Lake

Lines of voters wrapped around buildings, polling places nearly running out of ballots, people waiting to vote like they've never waited before.

Those stories and more led election officials and others to conclude there was a record voter turnout Tuesday in Flathead County.

Several election workers at the courthouse said they were getting reports of long lines, way above what anybody had seen before.

Turnouts of registered voters in some precincts places were estimated to be in the 80 to 90 percent range.

Terry Gormley was the last voter in line at the Elks Lodge on U.S. 93 South of Kalispell just before 9 p.m. - nearly an hour after the polls had closed. State law requires election officials to let those in line vote, even after the official closure.

"It's great. It's awesome," Gormley said of the turnout that was obvious to him. "That's the way every election ought to be."

Gormley said the 50-minute wait to get inside the lodge wasn't so bad. When he arrived, the line extended roughly 30 yards outside the building.

His wife, Virginia, voted at the same place several hours before, and had to wait two hours to vote.

Kimberly Plum was among the last in line.

"The line was clear out along the fence there," said Plum, who initially decided to skip voting because of the lines. But when she got home, she got a call from a campaign volunteer for Montana gubernatorial candidate Bob Brown who told her that state law allows voters to vote if they are in line before the 8 p.m. poll closure.

"That kind of changed my mind for me, so I came out," Plum said.

At the courthouse, election workers started counting 8,000 absentee ballots at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and by 8:30 p.m., they weren't finished counting.

There were reports of long lines at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, at polls in Whitefish and in Bigfork.

Because voters were standing in the rain at a substation for the Badrock Fire Department, a fire engine was pulled out of the garage so people could stand in the garage.

There were reports of some polling places nearly running out of ballots in the Whitefish and West Valley areas.

"Bigfork was a zoo," said Montana Senate President Bob Keenan. "All day long voter turnout was incredible. Throughout the day there was as many as 200 people in line waiting to vote.

"I was there at at 10 to 7 this morning and there were probably 40 people in line in front of me," Keenan said.

The voter turnout was a hot topic at the Outlaw Inn, where the local Republican and Democratic Parties were holding election parties across a hallway from one another.

Bruce Measure, a former Democratic state legislator, said voters were obviously fired up across the country. In Montana, if voters weren't motivated by the presidential race then they were likely motivated by compelling state and local races, along with several ballot measures.

"The stakes are really high for everybody," he said. "For the Democratic Party, it's win or lose right here for the next four years … Never before have I seen the stakes so high."