Voters in Yellowstone County cast their votes for Billings City Council on Tuesday night, bringing out a total of 28,020 voters looking to select their new representatives for city government. With the Yellowstone County Elections Office reporting 73,457 total registered voters, that comes out to a 38% voter turnout for this election which while still lower than ideal is higher than most elections that don’t feature a mayoral race, monetary issue, or statewide or national office.
In Ward 1, which encompasses Downtown Billings, the North Side, half of the South Side, and the small portion of the Heights South of Hilltop Rd., Kendra Shaw’s 1,882 votes translated to 58.5% of the ballots and was enough to defeat John Armstrong. After coming out of the primary election with 47.5% of the vote, Shaw was definitely the favorite to win this race and it appears voters for Jim Ronquillo, who was eliminated in the primary election, split their votes fairly equally between Shaw and Armstrong.
Roy Neese easily held onto his Council seat for Ward 2, which is the entirety of the Billings Heights North of Hilltop Rd., bringing in 63% of the ballots cast. Randy Heinz was able to capture roughly 37% of the vote which was a vast improvement from the 19.7% he garnered in the primary. Neese was the only incumbent up for reelection this cycle and enjoyed the advantage incumbents normally have during elections, with his reelection all but certain from the outset.
In Ward 3, encompassing Midtown Billings and a good portion of the South Side, Danny Choriki emerged victorious with 2,638 votes (55.37%) in his race against Aldo Rowe who came in with exactly 44% of the vote. Since these two were the only candidates running in Ward 3, there was no primary election which made this race slightly more difficult to predict.
The closest race by far occurred in Ward 4, which covers the area of Midtown and the West End between Colton Blvd and the Rims and stretches as far West as the Ironwood subdivision. In the end, Pam Purinton was declared the victor with 50.69% the vote to Carmelita Dominguez’s 49.04%. Ward 4 cast nearly as many ballots as Wards 2 and 3 combined and had the highest number of voters, 8,145 total, with the race being decided by 135 votes. Purinton came out of the primary election as the frontrunner, garnering roughly 10% more of the vote than Dominguez, but with votes from those who voted for the other four candidates who were eliminated in the primary up for grabs in this general election it was bound to be a close matchup.
The Ward 5 race between Mike Boyett and Dennis Ulvestad was a bit less close. Ward 5 covers the West End of Billings and had five candidates running in the primary, with Boyett coming out of it with 39% of the vote and Ulvestad coming in second with 25%. Ulvestad’s campaign ran into a bit of a snag when it was reported that he had outstanding warrants related to failure to pay fines related to a DUI. Although he took care of the fines and the warrant was summarily quashed, it seems that it may have hurt his chances to the point that he received less votes in the general election than he did in the primary, 1,012 and 1,028 respectively, while Boyett increased his 39% to a landslide victory of 3,722 votes, 78% of the total ballots cast.
