This November, Montana voters are being asked to fundamentally change the structure of our elections through the ballot initiative CI-126. This initiative was brought to Montana by an out-of-state group funded by leftist billionaires and it amounts to a radical social "experiment" being run in what they consider a "cheap" state. We urge Montanans to vote No on CI-126 and reject this radical new plan for how we run our elections.
What it does
CI-126 would amend the Montana Constitution to provide that the top four finishers in the primary election, regardless of party, advance to the general elections. This makes one wonder why there are primary elections at all. Voters today have a difficult time sorting through the political ads, mailers, and press in our current system. It is a terrible idea to make elections more difficult, time consuming, and expensive for the average voter.
Because twice as many candidates will qualify for the general election, they will be required to spend more money to be competitive. Since there will be more candidates qualifying for the general election, more candidates and more outside groups will be vying for your attention. Montana politics will become increasingly negative and more polarizing.
Opponents of CI-126 are not afraid of competition. However, that competition should be fair, free of outside money and influence and with the least possible impact on our constituents. CI-126 guarantees that the opposite will happen.
The backers of CI-126 want to implement a complicated and confusing Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) scheme in Montana. RCV allow voters to cast a vote for multiple candidates in the same race and requires specialized vote tabulation machines and sophisticated computer algorithms to count the votes. Most county election offices in Montana do not currently have this technology and will be forced to purchase it, at increased taxpayer expense.
Follow the money
The dark money groups backing CI-126 have supported RCV initiatives in several other states.
CI-126 is a solution in search of a problem. No one in Montana is clamoring for this change. In fact, most of the $8 million spent on CI-126 so far came from three dark money groups headquartered in Houston, Texas, Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
These outside groups are conducting an experiment on the voters of Montana and Montana's political system. If this experiment turns out to be a failure—with more expensive and more polarized elections—Montanans will pay the price.
CI-126 amounts to a radical, expensive, and unnecessary experiment that is all but guaranteed to make political campaigns longer, more confusing, and even more dependent on special-interest money.
CI-126's experimental top-four primary scheme makes primary elections largely unnecessary, makes decisions more difficult for voters, increases the number of candidates, requires candidates to be more reliant on special interest money, and doesn't represent the concerns of Montanans.
Vote no on CI-126.
Senator Shelley Vance represents Senate District 34 in Bozeman and is the former Gallatin County Election Administrator. Senator Greg Hertz represents Senate District 6 in Polson. Rep. Lee Deming represents House District 55 in Laurel. Chuck Denowh is the former executive director of the Montana Republican Party.
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