The primary election results for the Billings City Council are officially in. With 18,148 ballots returned out of 47,062 that were sent out to Billings residents, turnout for this election was at 38%. While this number may seem low, this number is on par with similar elections. Residents of Ward 3, roughly Midtown Billings, were the only Ward to not receive ballots as they only have two candidates, Aldo Rowe and Danny Choriki, who will both move on to the general election.
Ward 1, which includes Downtown Billings, the South Side, the North Side, and the southern part of the Heights to Hilltop Rd., voted to send Kendra Shaw and John Armstrong to the general election with 1,248 votes (47.47%) and 703 votes (26.74%) respectively. The third candidate, Jim Ronquillo, was eliminated with 38 fewer votes than Armstrong. Ward 1 had the fewest number of ballots go out at 8,598. With just over 2,600 coming in, they had a turnout rate of 31%.
Ward 2, encompassing most of the Heights, mailed out over 11,000 ballots but only managed a 29% turnout with only 3,331 being returned. Out of those, the Heights residents have chosen incumbent Roy Neese and Randy Heinz to go head-to-head in the general election with Neese the obvious favorite with 49.65% of the total vote and Heinz coming in with 19.69%. This leaves Roger Gravgaard and Michael Richardson, 17% and 12.6% respectively, off of the final ballot. Unless a large number of Heights residents come out of the woodwork for the general election, it seems Roy Neese will retain his seat on the Council.
Ward 4, the area of Midtown Billings and the West End that lies north of Colton Blvd. and extends out to Ironwood, had both the most candidates and the highest turnout at 40%. Over 6,000 of the 15,000 ballots sent out were returned and voters have chosen to send Pam Purinton and Carmelita Dominguez on to the general election with roughly 37% and 27% of the vote respectively. The other four candidates who made a run, Daron Olson, Gordon Olson, Nicole Gallagher, and Matthew Senn, failed to break 20% of the vote.
Ward 5, the West End out to 48th St. W., was second in both turnout and number of candidates with 35% of the roughly 12,000 ballots returned to choose from the five candidates running. Voters chose Mike Boyett and Dennis Ulvestad with 39% and 25% respectively to head on to the next ballot. Jennifer Merecki came in at a close third with 21% of the vote followed by Frederick Wilburn at 11% and Leilahni Kay at 4%.
