Montgomery County had a strong turnout in the polls at the general election on Nov. 5 as more 6,000 residents cast their votes in nine different polling places.

Unofficially, the county had a 70.75 percent turnout (6,012 of 8,497), a small drop from the 2020 election, which had a 71.86 percent turnout. But there were over 200 more people casting their votes this year than in 2020.

“I was hoping for a high turnout with wide margins,” Montgomery County Clerk Carole Weeks said. “It’s always what we pray for – high turnout and wide margins.”

Montgomery City had the highest number of voters with 1,346. It moved its polling place to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds from the Knights of Columbus Hall.

“It was good for the size of the election that we had,” Weeks said. “It was not really the best for some of the handicapped people. It was hard for those with wheelchairs in the gravel. They knew that ahead of time. They were familiar with the area. They came in here and voted no-excuse absentee because of that.”

Rhineland-McKittrick had the highest percentage of voters with 70.98 percent (406 of 572). Bellflower had the second highest percentage of voters with 63 percent (424 of 673).

Weeks said the County Clerk’s office was used as a central polling place on Election Day. A total of 29 people cast their votes at the office.

“Say you work in Wellsville, but you are supposed to vote in Jonesburg and you get off work late or whatever,” Weeks said. “You can come in here and vote. You don’t have an excuse on Election Day to come into our office and vote.”

The county also had 1,101 absentee votes. Residents got to cast their ballots ahead of Election Day. No-excuse absentee voting began on Oct. 22.

“That’s a pretty big jump for absentee voting,” Weeks said. “There’s a difference between the no-excuse absentee and the early voting. The no-excuse absentee starts two weeks before the election on Oct. 22 and all absentee rules still apply. You still have to fill out an application and you have to give us an excuse, but you have to sign and date it. We got slammed with that this year.”

In the local level, Dave Teeter (1st District Commissioner), Doug Lensing (2nd District Commissioner), Weeks (County Clerk), Craig Allison (Sheriff), Kaley Reagan (Public Administrator), Jason Luna (Coroner), Jeff Porter (Assessor) and Larry Bade (Surveyor) won their respective races. All of them ran unopposed.

The county voted for Rhineland resident and Republican candidate Andrew Bailey to remain Missouri Attorney General. Bailey won the statewide election, defeating Elad Gross. Bailey has been state attorney general since January 2023.

The county overwhelmingly voted for Republican Donald Trump for President. Trump had 4,759 votes, while Democrat Kamala Harris finished with 1,165.

Republican Mike Kehoe picked up the most votes in the Governor race, finishing with 4,686. Democrat Crystal Quade had 1,093.

Other top vote getters were Josh Hawley (U.S. Senator), Dave Wasinger (Lt. Governor), Denny Hoskins (Secretary of State), Vivek Malek (State Treasurer), Bob Onder (U.S. Representative Bob Onder), Jeff Myers (42nd District State Representative), Bruce Sassmann (61st District State Representative), Richard Scheibe (12th Circuit Judge).

On the Constitutional ballots, the county approved Amendment 7, while turning down Amendments 2, 3, 5 and 6.

The county also turned down Proposition A, which allows the state to increase the minimum wage.

In the judicial ballots, the county approved Missouri Supreme Court judges Kelly Broniec and Ginger Gooch and Missouri Court of Appeals judges Robert Clayton, Gary Gaertner, Renee Hardin-Tammons, Cristian Stevens and Michael Wright to be retained in office.

Weeks said she and her staff finished with the results around 9:30 p.m.

“It was a challenge,” Weeks said. “We survived it. It was a huge sigh of relief when we left last night and we knew it was over.”