HELENA — A pair of ballot measures seeking to reshape the state’s election system will go before voters this November, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s Office.
Thursday marked a key milestone in the 2024 election – the day the Secretary of State was tasked with making the final certification of which candidates and ballot measures will appear before voters in November. Just before 7:30 p.m. Thursday, the office’s website added Constitutional Initiatives 126 and 127 to its list of issues qualified for the ballot.
Montanans for Election Reform, the committee sponsoring the two amendments, celebrated the announcement in a statement.
“We’re grateful to make it through the final step of the certification process and see the will of over 100,000 Montanans who want to see these initiatives on the ballot honored,” said Frank Garner, an MER board member. “Our citizens' initiative process is critical for us to uphold Montana values and hold our politicians accountable. We’re excited to spend the next few months talking with voters across the state about how CI-126 and CI-127 will give voters better choices and allow us to vote for the person, not the party.”
CI-126 would create a “top-four primary” in Montana. All candidates from all parties would appear on a single primary ballot, and the four who received the most votes – regardless of party – would go on to the November general election. CI-127 would require the general election winner to get a majority of the vote – at least 50%. It would be up to the Legislature to decide how to implement that, with some possible options being a runoff election or a ranked-choice voting system.
CI-126 and CI-127 will go on the ballot alongside CI-128, an amendment that would specifically add abortion rights to the Montana Constitution and which was certified on Tuesday.
All three of the measures went through legal battles, centered on whether signatures from voters on Montana’s “inactive list” should count toward their qualification threshold. A judge in Lewis and Clark County ruled those signatures should be counted, and another judge dismissed a Lake County lawsuit that sought to block counting them.
It takes signatures from at least 60,359 registered voters to qualify a constitutional amendment for the ballot, and at least 604 in 40 of Montana’s 100 state legislative districts.
Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s office said in a statement Thursday that they had completed certification for all statewide and state district candidates and statewide ballot issues. A full list of general election candidates was posted on their website around 8 p.m., though it was no longer available as of 9:45 p.m.
There has been one notable change in the general election field. Michael Downey, of Helena, who won the Green Party primary for U.S. Senate, withdrew from the race. The party replaced him with Robert Barb, of Darby, who finished second.
The initial list of general election candidates also included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been running an independent campaign for president, though there has been speculation he may exit the race. His campaign said in a statement Saturday that they had submitted 11,000 petition signatures to get him on the ballot in Montana. It takes 5,000 signatures for an independent presidential candidate to qualify in the state.
Besides Kennedy, the listed presidential candidates included Republican former President Donald Trump, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
With the ballots finalized, they’ll soon be headed to the printers. Mail ballots are expected to start going out to voters in October.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A list of general election candidates was briefly posted to the Montana Secretary of State's website earlier on Thursday evening, but was no longer available at last check. This article has been updated to reflect that.
