Montana Title 7. Local Government § 7-2-2712. Canvass of returns--proclamation of results

(1) The board of county commissioners of each county, acting as a canvassing board, shall, within 10 days after the election, canvass the returns of the election. Within 5 days after the canvass, the election administrator of each county shall make and enter in the records of the board a statement of the vote in the county and transmit to the secretary of state, by certified mail, an abstract of the vote, which must be marked “election returns”.

(2) Within 10 days after receiving the abstracts from all counties in which the election was held and on notice from the secretary of state, the board of state canvassers shall meet and canvass, compute, and determine the vote. The secretary of state, as secretary of the board, shall make and file in the secretary of state's office a statement of the canvass and transmit a copy of the canvass to the governor.

(3) Upon receipt of the copy, the governor shall issue a proclamation declaring the result of the election and shall file a copy of the proclamation in the office of the secretary of state and transmit a copy of the proclamation to the county clerk of each of the counties in which the election was held. Each county clerk shall file the proclamation in the clerk's office and present the proclamation to the board of county commissioners of that county at the first meeting of the board after the copy has been received by the clerk.