On Page 10 of this issue, you’ll find a public notice from Montana’s Secretary of State containing the full text of three constitutional initiatives that will appear on the general election ballot this November.
If you haven’t paid attention to these already, you should now.
Constitutional Initiatives (CI) 126 and 127, which have been promoted by Montanans for Election Reform, a coalition of moderate Republicans and mainstream Democrats, are sort of a package deal.
CI-126 would essentially neutralize political party affiliation in elections. Voters, “regardless of political party preference or affiliation or a lack thereof,” would be able to vote for any candidate in primaries for most statewide and federal offices. The four candidates who get the most votes in the primary, whatever their party affiliation, would advance to the general election.
CI-127 would require that a candidate receive a majority of votes in a general election to be declared the winner. Montana law currently holds that candidates can win with a simple plurality — they just need to get more votes than anyone else.
The initiative requires that the state Legislature decide how to resolve elections in which no candidate wins by a majority. State law currently does not describe a procedure for what to do in this case.
CI-128, sponsored by a group called Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, would ensure access of women to abortion services in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 in the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which essentially overturned the federal protection of Roe vs. Wade and allowed states to determine the legality of abortions.
Montana has allowed abortions since the state Supreme Court’s decision in the 1999 Armstrong vs. State case, which tied the right to abortion to privacy protections described by the Montana Constitution. CI-128 would specifically guarantee access to the procedure: “There is a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion. This right shall not be denied or burdened unless justified by a compelling government interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
You can read more about these proposals and how they came to be at Montana Free Press (https://montanafreepress.org/2024/08/23/how-montana-constitutional-initiatives-got-on-the-ballot/) . I strongly suggest you do so before Election Day.
