The Independent View: Montana Removes Top-Two Ballot Measure from 2014 Ballot

Thanks to Ballot Access News for this post.

On March 25, the Montana Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the top-two ballot measure the legislature put on the 2014 ballot has technical flaws, MEA-MFT v State of Montana - OP 13-0789. Therefore, it cannot appear on the 2014 November ballot.

Montana law says the title of a ballot measure put on the ballot by the legislature can’t exceed 100 words. The legislature had written a ballot title of almost 200 words, including all the election code sections being amended. The legislature had then defended itself in this lawsuit by saying that code section references, which are numbers, aren’t words. But the majority on the Supreme Court disagreed with five of the justices also sayingf the title is confusing.

The 2013 session of the legislature had put the measure on the ballot because the majority of legislators are Republicans, and were upset that in 2012, the Libertarian Party nominees for Governor and U.S. Senator prevented either major party nominee from receiving a majority of the vote, with Democrats wining both elections.

The Republican majority in the legislature in 2013 then determined that if Montana had a top-two system, there would be no more minor party candidates in the general election. The majority didn’t simply pass a bill for a top-two system because if it had passed an ordinary bill, the Democratic Governor would have vetoed it. But by putting a ballot measure on the ballot, the legislature was able to bypass the Governor.

Here is a case where the use of Top-Two was used by a party to try to remove minor party or independent candidates from the November ballot.

CLICK HERE to read the court's opinion.