Mineral County voters joined Montanans across the state Tuesday, Nov. 3, to decide local positions, statewide and federal offices along with a few questions.

While the statewide election produced results in several closely watched contests, Mineral County voters also had some decisions of their own, including a contested county commissioner race and a justice of the peace election. 

According to the Montana Secretary of State's unofficial election results, Mineral County recorded 58.67% voter turnout, compared with 60.17% statewide. That puts local participation about 1.5 percentage points below the Montana average.

One of the county's local contests was the special election for Mineral County commissioner, central district. Interim Commissioner Republican Dan Clemts received 1,242 votes, or approximately 53% of the total, while independent Bruce Moats received 1,090 votes, or roughly 47%.

Clemts won the contest by 152 votes. 

“I can now think more long term,” he said last week. “I will be going to the Elected Officials Training in Helena next month to learn more about the ins and outs of being a commissioner. I am going to spend more time in the office reading policies and procedures. I want to visit neighboring counties and go to their meetings and see how they operate and what I can learn from them to bring back to Mineral County. I will be spending a lot of time talking to businesses already here and businesses that might want to relocate or start up in Mineral County. I will also be looking for businesses to make a pitch to relocate here. My goal is to bring businesses that pay well and complement our county.” 

Because his position has been temporary the last few months, Clemts has been juggling his life and work balance. 

“I will be working on finding an assistant at my maintenance position to take over the smaller jobs and work fewer hours, as I'd like to get that job down to around 10 hours a week from the 20-25 I work now,” he said with a smile.   

The past few months have been beneficial in many ways, being able to taste the job before the election made it permanent. Clemts said it’s been a good start for him. 

“I'm impressed with the job performance of just about everyone I've interacted with at the county level," he said. "There are a lot of resources at the state and federal level I will be looking into and seeing what can benefit Mineral County. I've learned that my fellow commissioners have a lot of knowledge about the job and I am learning from their many years of experience.” 

He said he's grateful to the people of Mineral County and aims to make them feel good about their choice of voting for him. County commissioners are assigned different local organizations and committees to serve on each January and Clemts has been attending the ones that had been assigned to his predecessor as often as his schedule would allow. 

“The only thing I can say at this time is that we do have talented hard-working people in this community who care and put in effort to make it better,” he said.  

The justice of the peace position also brought two names to the ballot from the primary election in June, with Buffy Kelly and incumbent Kim Taron competing in the nonpartisan race. Unlike partisan elections, candidates for justice of the peace do not run under a political party label. 

Taron kept her position with 1,239 votes compared to 940 for Kelly. 

“We are going to push forward with becoming a court of record,” Taron said two days after the election. “Many believe the county is falling behind as we are not currently a court of record, but if you look at the whole state, there are 65 justice courts and approximately six of those are courts of record. My goal is to add Mineral County to that list.” 

She also reflected on her first term. 

“It was a whirlwind of information and new experiences," she said. "I don’t know if I will ever stop learning in this position. I have learned to believe in myself and the decisions I make, I trust that by using the law and the facts as presented I will make decisions that are fair and unbiased." 

“My biggest obstacle at first was believing in myself and my knowledge and experience. It is a huge responsibility to rule in cases that have possible consequences for the parties. But because of my trust in the law, I was able to rule on matters that were appealed to the Montana Supreme Court and the court ruled in my favor.” 

Taron also stated that she would not have been able to do any of this without the support of her clerks.

Several other county positions appeared on the ballot without contested general-election opponents. They included Sheriff Samuel (Ben) Banks, West End Commissioner Duane Simons, County Attorney Roy Miller, Clerk and Recorder Kelann McLees, and Treasurer/Superintendent of Schools Merry Mueller. 

Jeff Stanek won in the primary and will be the new state representative for HD 90 as a Republican. 

Montana voters also considered three statewide ballot measures addressing judicial elections, citizens' initiative rights and political spending. Constitutional Initiative 132, which requires nonpartisan judicial elections, passed statewide with approximately 68% voting yes. Constitutional Initiative 133, addressing the constitutional protection of citizens' initiative and referendum rights, also passed, receiving approximately 65% support. Initiative 194, which addresses political spending by artificial persons and corporate political activity, received approximately 65% statewide approval. 

All three measures passed statewide, although the individual Mineral County vote totals should be checked against the county canvass before making a direct county-to-state comparison. 

In the statewide contests, Republican Kurt Alme won the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Sam Forstag won Montana's U.S. House District 1 race, and Amy Eddy won the Montana Supreme Court Justice No. 4 contest. 

The Supreme Court race was particularly interesting because Eddy and Dan Wilson ran as nonpartisan candidates, giving voters a choice that was not identified by political party.

For a rural county such as Mineral, local elections carry particular importance. county commissioners make decisions affecting roads, budgets, public services and the future direction of county government. The position of justice of the peace also plays an important role in the local judicial system. Although Mineral County's turnout came in slightly below the statewide average, local voters had an opportunity to weigh in on both the people representing them and issues affecting Montana as a whole. The election results remain unofficial until the required post-election canvassing and certification procedures are completed.