Judicial election ballot measure submits signatures, property tax measures won't move forward

[RandySF]

HELENA — Around Montana, you’ve likely seen signature gatherers, asking people to sign petitions to get proposed ballot measures before voters this year. Now, the deadline for getting those signatures is fast approaching – but the sponsors of one measure believe they’ve already done enough to qualify.

Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts, the committee behind Constitutional Initiative 132, turned in some of their final signatures to the Lewis and Clark County Elections Office in Helena Wednesday. They say they’ve gotten more than 100,000 signatures – well over the 60,241 they’d need to get on the ballot.

“We got so much positive feedback out in the field from volunteers who are gathering and saying that to a lot of voters, this is just a no-brainer,” said Caitie Butler, a spokesperson for MNC.

However, that number could still change. Election officials will be checking each signature to make sure it’s valid – that it’s from a registered voter, that it was turned in to the correct county, and that it matches the signature on file. In addition, ballot measures need a minimum number of signatures in a specific number of state legislative districts, to ensure the support isn’t coming from just one part of Montana. The final number of accepted signatures is typically significantly lower than the initial amount supporters turn in.




https://www.ktvh.com/news/montana-politics/judicial-election-ballot-measure-submits-signatures-property-tax-measures-wont-move-forward#google_vignette

[MontanaMama]

1. I've been following these efforts.

I’m not sure what to think about judges running with party affiliations. One the one hand, it would be easier to vote against anyone with an R by their name but that doesn’t necessarily take care of the rethuglican problem. We still have to research their decisions and opinions to make sure we get it right.

Kind of off topic but related regarding signature gathering is the handful of candidates running for House and Senate who say they’re “Independents”. None of them were on our primary ballots in MT. They were still gathering signatures a week before the primary to get themselves on the November ballot so they skipped the primary vetting process altogether. I’m highly suspicious that a few of them are Trojan horses. We haven’t seen their platforms or position statements. I got into a heated discussion with one of them at the farmer’s market a couple weeks ago and he told me that he was a “kindred spirit” of the Dem candidate I was voting for. My question for him was why would he take votes away from that democrat if he was such a kindred spirit? Then there’s Seth Bodnar. Former president of the University of Montana running as an Indy. Jon Tester seems to be behind him which floored me. I don’t trust Bodnar for a thin minute. Again, we don’t know what he actually stands for or against and I’m baffled as to why he would already have Tester’s support.