Sheriff

Heidi Visocan was appointed sheriff of Sheridan County, Montana in 2015 to fill a vacancy, won her first contested election in November 2016, and was re-elected in 2018 and subsequent cycles. She is the first woman elected sheriff in the State of Montana in the modern competitive-election era.

Pathway and the partial badge

The "partial" verification badge marks this dossier for the same reason as Sue Rahr's (Washington 2005): Visocan's pathway to the office was appointment-then-election rather than an open-seat first run. She had served the Sheridan County Sheriff's Office as a deputy for a little over three years before her 2015 appointment.

The pre-Visocan Montana record contains earlier women who held the title but only through widow succession — most notably Ruth Garfield in Golden Valley County in 1920, appointed to complete the term of her husband Jess Garfield after he was shot by a deranged rancher and died 12 days later. Garfield is documented in this dossier as historical context, not as a separate entry, in line with the law-enforcement domain's editorial rule.

Visocan's 2016 election was contested; she retained the office in 2018 and later cycles. The state-first framing is held on the strength of (i) the Montana Sheriffs' Association recognition of her as the state's first elected woman sheriff and (ii) the absence in available sources of any earlier Montana woman who won a contested sheriff's race.

Sources

• Montana Sheriffs — Sheriff Heidi Visocan, Sheridan County
• Sheridan County, MT — Sheriff's Office official page
• Small & Rural Law Enforcement Executives Association — Heidi Visocan biography
• Ravalli Republic — History with Phil: Female sheriffs in Montana (Garfield 1920 widow-succession context)