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Free pizza and a DJ help defrost Montana voters lined up until 4 a.m. in the snow to vote

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Free pizza and a DJ help defrost Montana voters lined up until 4 a.m. in the snow to vote


BOZEMAN, Mont. — Stuck on a snowy sidewalk for hours after polls closed, voters in a Montana college town created an encouraging vibe as they moved slowly through a line leading to the ballot boxes inside the county courthouse.

They huddled under blankets and noshed on chips, nuts and pizza handed out by volunteers. They swayed to an impromptu street DJ, waved glow sticks and remembered a couple of truths: This is a college town and hanging out late at night for a good cause is fun — even in the teeth-chattering cold.

R-r-r-Right?

Hardy residents of Bozeman, Montana, queued along Main Street by the hundreds on election night, with Democrats, Republicans and independents sharing a not-so-brief moment of camaraderie and warmth to close out an otherwise caustic election season.

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Among them, clad in a puffy down jacket and a thin pair of gardening gloves, was Davor Danevski, a 38-year-old tech worker. By early Wednesday morning, he’d waited almost five hours.

“The last two elections I missed because I was living abroad in Europe. I didn’t want to miss a third election,” said Danevski. “Too many people don’t take it as seriously as they should.”

Polls closed at 8 p.m. The last ballot was cast at 4 a.m. by an undoubtedly committed voter.

The long wait traces to a clash of Montana’s recent population growth and people who waited until the last minute to register to vote, change their address on file or get a replacement ballot. Many voters in the hometown of Montana State University were students.

The growth of Gallatin County — up almost 40% since 2010 — meant the 10 election workers crammed into an office were woefully insufficient to process all the last-minute voter registrations and changes.

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“The building’s just not set up … It’s not designed to hold all the people that Gallatin County has now for every election. So we need to do something about that,” County Clerk Eric Semerad said of the structure built in 1935.

As darkness descended, flurries swirled and temperatures plunged into the 20s (minus 15 degrees Celsius), Kael Richards, a 22-year-old project engineer for a concrete company, took his place with a friend at the back of the line.

He appreciated the food and hand warmers given out before he finally cast his vote at 1 a.m. By then, he estimated, he had been lined up between seven and eight hours.

“The people down there were super nice,” Richards said Wednesday. “We thought about throwing in the towel but we were pretty much at the point that we’ve already been here, so why not?”

The county clerk asked county emergency officials to help manage the crowd since it was snowing. They shut down a road by the courthouse and set up tents with heaters inside. “It was brilliant,” Semerad said.

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The line’s precise length was hard to measure as it snaked along the sidewalk, into the road and through the tent. It continued up the courthouse steps, jammed through a doorway, wrapped around an open lobby, up some more stairs, between rows of glass cases filled with historic artifacts and finally into the office of late-toiling election workers.

In past elections, lines have gone past midnight, but never as late as Tuesday’s, Semerad said. Many waiting could have stepped out of line and cast provisional ballots but chose to stick it out.

As midnight came and went Danevski stood patiently waiting his turn to start up the courthouse steps. For him, the long hours were worth it.

“If you can, you should always try to vote,” he said.

___

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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming.



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Christi Jacobsen enters race for Western House seat

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Christi Jacobsen enters race for Western House seat


Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen is running for Montana’s Western Congressional District seat, entering the race a day after U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke announced he would not seek reelection.

Jacobsen’s announcement sets up a new contest for the open seat after Zinke, a Republican, said he would seek reelection.

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“As your Secretary of State, I’ve stood up to Washington overreach, defended election integrity, and delivered real results for Montanans. In 2020, voters gave me a mandate to clean up our elections, grow Montana business, and push back against radical liberal special interests. I delivered. Now it’s time to take that same results-driven, America First leadership to Congress.”



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Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for March 2, 2026

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The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at March 2, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from March 2 drawing

02-17-18-38-62, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

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Winning Lotto America numbers from March 2 drawing

03-08-17-24-34, Star Ball: 06, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from March 2 drawing

06-12-19-29, Bonus: 11

Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from March 2 drawing

21-28-58-65-67, Powerball: 25

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Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 2 drawing

28-41-42-50-55, Bonus: 02

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?

  • Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
  • Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
  • Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
  • Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.

Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate

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Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate


Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.

Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:

The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….

There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:

While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.

The Missoulan article includes this response:

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In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.

“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”

As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.

Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.



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