The race for Montana superintendent of public instruction remained too close to call Thursday while Yellowstone County continued tallying votes two days after the general election.

Republican candidate Sandy Welch says a recount is likely.

With most votes counted, incumbent Democrat Denise Juneau led by less than a percentage point over Republican challenger Welch, who is a Martin City resident.

The last Welch had heard at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, she was trailing Juneau by 0.34 percent, or about 1,600 votes statewide.

“It’s just continuing,” Welch said during a stop at the Inter Lake. “We’re just tying some campaign things up and watching the vote.”

Yellowstone County elections registration clerk Barb Cox said Thursday that officials hoped to have all votes tallied by the end of the day.

Repeated problems with the county’s three vote-counting machines delayed the results in the state’s most populous county. Cox said the machines were running Thursday morning and a technician was on hand in case they had more problems.

Both Juneau and Welch have expressed confidence in their ability to win.

Welch explained that if the margin is less than a quarter of a percentage point, the state must pay for a recount if a candidate requests one.

If the margin is between a quarter to a half a percentage point, the candidate must pay for the recount.

Welch said she has been in touch with the Secretary of State’s Office, which has been surveying county election offices to get a feel for what a recount might cost. The costs would include the labor involved with recounts at all county election offices.

“There are estimates that the recount could be more than the cost of my campaign,” Welch said, adding that her campaign cost more than $100,000.

She said a recount would be backed by the state Republican Party.

“We’ll get a lot of help with fundraising because this is the [political] event that is left in Montana,” she said.

If the vote margin is close as she expects it will be, Welch said she will still wait until Tuesday, when county election offices will count provisional ballots, many of them submitted by military voters.

After votes are canvassed statewide, that’s when the decision to request a recount will come from either candidate, Welch said.

“We’re not going to have any final numbers before Nov. 27,” she said, and final numbers may come after that date.

“It’s just letting the process move ahead,” she said. “We’ll probably be looking at a recount.”

Preliminary statewide numbers show 485,492 people voted in this year’s election for a 71.2 percent voter turnout.

That number may change, but it is lower at this point than the 74 percent turnout in the 2008 presidential election, Secretary of State Linda McCulloch said.

A record number of people registered and voted on Election Day this year. There were 7,975 same-day registrants compared to 7,419 in 2008, McCulloch said.

In Flathead County, 1,028 voters registered on Election Day.

The preliminary number of late registrants — people who registered within 30 days of the election — was a record 19,928 people, compared to 18,357 in 2008.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.