Yellowstone County voters are favoring Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale and incumbent Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson, but turning down a statewide measure backed by abortion opponents known as the "born-alive" referendum.
Those were some of the tallies in the first batch of unofficial results released to MTN News Tuesday night just before midnight. All 44 precincts are reporting.
The unofficial results show Rosendale with 51 percent of Yellowstone County's vote. Independent Gary Buchanan of Billings had nearly 26 percent, while Democrat Penny Ronning, also of Billings, had almost 22 percent.
County election officials sent the final results to the Montana Secretary of State's Office just before 1 a.m. Wednesday for the tabulation of the official results for statewide and congressional races. Yellowstone County is Montana's largest county.
Rosendale carried a lead in the eastern Montana congressional district, but with outstanding ballots in other population centers such as Bozeman and Great Falls, the race has not been called.
In Yellowstone County, Gustafson, a Billings native, had nearly 57 percent of the vote. Challenger James Brown had about 43 percent. She also leads Brown statewide.
Legislative Referendum 131, which seeks to make any infant born alive a legal person, was trailing in Yellowstone County with 52 percent voting no. The measure was also behind statewide.
Check out the Yellowstone County unofficial results below:
