Eldridge defeats Meis in Havre city council race

Havre voters elected Derek Eldridge Tuesday as the new sitting City Council member for Ward 4.

The election was the only contested race for Havre City Council. Eldridge defeated incumbent Erik Meis with 149 votes to 78 votes. 

Meis was appointed in December of last year after Andrew Brekke resigned from his position in November.

Eldridge, the manager at fivehead’s, was originally born and raised in Great Falls, and moved to Havre to help his parents, Keith and Loretta Eldridge, open their businesses in Havre less than a decade ago. 

A press release from the Fort Belknap Indian Community Election Committee said that the 2019 Fort Belknap Indian Community Council election was completed Tuesday but due to the weather and road conditions the election results were not concluded that evening. 

The release said Fort Belknap Police reported multiple slide offs and accidents on reservation roads Tuesday evening and recommended at about 7:30 p.m. tribal leadership close all roads on the reservation except U.S. Highway 2 and State Highway 66.

The release said that because of the closures, the chief judges at each polling place could not bring their tallies of ballots to the Fort Belknap Agency to meet with the Fort Belknap Election Committee and complete certification of the election results.

The release said the Election Committee planned to meet at 11 a.m. at the Fort Belknap Agency today to complete the certification of the election, it says.

The release said the committee “offers its sincere apology that this delay is necessitated by the weather conditions and will see to complete the certification process as soon as it can be safely done.”

Havre Daily News will post the results as soon as it obtains them.

Candidates were Mike Fox and Wes KillEagle Sr. for Gros Ventre at-large; John Allen and incumbent Brandi King for Assiniboine-at-large; incumbent Curtis Horn against Judith King for Assiniboine-at-large representative; Arlene Cochran and incumbent Dominic Messerly for River Gros Ventre district representative; and incumbent Nathaniel Mount and Donald Horn for River Assiniboine district representative.