On June 5, Montana holds partisan primaries. Technically all qualified parties in Montana nominate by primary, but the state has almost never before printed up any primary ballots for parties other than Republican or Democratic. Generally minor parties don’t have contested primaries, and Montana doesn’t print primary ballots for parties with no contests.
However, this year the Green Party has two candidates running against each other for U.S. Senate, so there will be Green Party primary ballots. See this story.
How many of the larger minor parties had primaries in 1888-1932 —
Populist ??
Prohibition ??
Progressive ??
Socialist ABC/XYZ ??
— before the Donkeys/Elephants conspiracy to keep minor parties and independents OFF primary election ballots and esp. OFF general election ballots.
—
NO primaries
PR and AppV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_(United_States)
[Populist]
—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_Party
—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1924%E2%80%9334)
1924 Prez map colors
—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Party_System
1854-1894
—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Party_System
1894-1932
DONKEY-ELEPHANT *system* — under *some* stress
1932-2018
There would’ve been a contested Libertarian primary in 2012 but the SoS declined to print the ballot. Here’s an article about that with a link to the SoS decision:
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/political_notebook/why-isn-t-there-a-libertarian-party-primary-ballot/article_a4ec7e14-ee8a-11e3-a671-0019bb2963f4.html
They reiterated their position again in 2014:
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/political_notebook/why-isn-t-there-a-libertarian-party-primary-ballot/article_a4ec7e14-ee8a-11e3-a671-0019bb2963f4.html
I’m not sure what, if anything, has changed that would cause the SoS to allow a primary ballot to be printed and will be seeking clarification from their office. For more info, see MCA 13-10-209 (2)
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/13/10/13-10-209.htm
Correction: here’s the article from 2012:
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/montana-secretary-of-state-rules-no-need-for-libertarian-primary/article_9580b69e-72ee-11e1-a5f4-0019bb2963f4.html
There was a Montana Reform Party Primary in 2000. I was elected as a Reform Party Precinct Committeeman in Butte/Silver Bow then. Several other precinct committeemen & women were elected across Montana that year. I was also nominated to be the Montana Reform Party candidate for Secretary of State in that election. The primary was intentionally triggered when Cajun James and another MT RP member in Lincoln County both filed in the same MT House district.
Thank you, J.R. I hadn’t known that.
@MF/JRM
The law was corrected after the 2012 fiasco. See MCA 13-10-209 (2) and (3).
Montana does not have partisan registration. Instead a voter is given a ballot for each party, which they take into the voting booth. They may mark one ballot, and then discard the others. There may also be non-partisan offices. They may be a separate ballot, or the non-partisan offices may be repeated on each partisan ballot. In this second case, a voter might have to choose a partisan ballot in order to vote at all – and would be free to vote for partisan offices as well.
Because of this system, election officials must prepare ballots for a “worst case” scenario – high turnout and every voter deciding to vote the Libertarian/Green/whatever ballot. So it appears the intent of MCA 13-10-209 is to avoid printing of ballots for minor parties.
I could only find session laws on-line back to 2001. Since that time at least there has always been two basic conditions for having a party ballot:
(1) Candidates for more than half the offices on the ballot; OR
(2) Contested race.
I assume the first condition was to make sure the Republicans and Democrats still had ballots even when they didn’t have contested primaries, though it might have been intended to avoid printing ballots for small parties. The statute is not entirely clear what the scope of the primary is, since the official preparing the ballot is not the Secretary of State, but rather county election officials. Only half of the senate seats are contested each election year, and the same is true for members of the public service commission. Montana counties have home rule on steroids, authorizing them to combine offices, making some appointive or non-partisan, even sharing offices between counties. Montana only has three partisan statewide offices this year, the two federal offices, and the clerk of the Supreme Court, but any county could have many more. So if there is a county with Libertarian candidates for most offices, would a Libertarian ballot be printed for that county – which would also permit voters to write-in candidates for US Senate and US House? Or if there were a legislative contest in one district, would ballots only be printed for that district.
MCA 13-10-209 is written in a negative way. Instead of specifying the conditions for printing a ballot, it specifies the conditions for not printing a ballot, and suggests that not printing is discretionary (i.e. though it is not required to print a ballot, it could be printed). The conditions for printing a ballot are straightforward:
(1) Candidates for more than half the offices on the ballot; OR
(2) Contested race (2 or more candidates)
When you make these the conditions for not printing, you have to take the contrapositive:
NOT (A OR B) = (NOT A) and (NOT B)
So the conditions for not printing are:
(1) Not candidates for more than half the offices on the ballot; AND
(2) No contested races (2 or more candidates)
It is harder to understand, especially since the principles for printing are based on when you should print.
13-10-209 has been amended repeatedly. Most of these appear to be non-consequential changes.
(2001) This change reworded the section extensively, and the Senate committee hearing makes clear that the change was made in reaction to the 2000 Reform Party primary. I’m not sure whether the intent was to make it apply on a per county basis or what. HB 612 was an omnibus election bill, so other than the senate hearing, it is not clear what notice was made about the effect on minor party primaries.
(2003) This was part of an omnibus elections bill. The changes appear to be non-consequential. Instead of “printing” a ballot, an election administrator would “prepare” a ballot. Instead of being “printed” on the ballot, candidate names would “appear” on the ballot. But the conditions for “not preparing” a ballot for some parties was the same as previously “not printing.”
(2005) This changed an “and” to an “or” which changed the conditions for not preparing a primary ballot. Previously a ballot would not be prepared if both conditions were met: (1) half or less of offices have a candidate AND there was not a contested primary. The change meant that only condition had to be met.
If there were eight offices and only four were contested, it would not matter if there were 100 candidates for each off those four, it would be “Nosiree Bob, Charlie, Dave, Edward, Fred, … Xavier, Yorick, Zebulon, Aaron, etc., no primary for you.” All 400 would advance to the general election ballot.
This was also part of an omnibus bill. I’m pretty sure I saw a committee hearing where someone from the SOS office was going through the bill section by section, and a legislator asked about the change – as he tried to make sense out of nonsense. But he was assured it was the intent to do the opposite of what it said.
(2009) MCA 13-10-2009 was changed, but not subsections (2). This was part of an omnibus bill.
(2011) Another omnibus bill, and a non-consequential change.
In 2012, the Libertarian Primary had a contested US Senate race, and the SOS literally interpreted the 2005 change, even though it made no sense. She even produced a spreadsheet showing the number of partisan offices in every county, to prove that the Libertarians did not have candidates for more than half the races in any county. If they did, I don’t know what she would have done. Probably printed the ballot for that county, and let its voters choose the statewide nominee.
(2013) The language in 13-10-209(2) was reverted back to pre-2005 form of “and”. In the senate hearing, the elections deputy for the SOS explained the change, and ended up confusing the senators. She explained the conditions when you would want to prepare a ballot:
(1) Candidates for more than half of the offices on a ballot; OR
(2) A contested primary.
She then explained that because the statute gives the conditions for not preparing a ballot, it is inverted and the conjunction becomes AND. A senator was puzzled, since she said it was either condition. The deputy for the SOS said it was confusing, and explained it carefully again, and said she could meet with senators who were confused. She said that the confusion was probably the reason for the 2005 change.
The 2013 change also added the condition that no primary would be held if the contested race was for precinct committee office.
In 2014, the Libertarian Party did not have a primary, but they did not have any contested races. Though they had candidates for both statewide races, and a few legislative races, they did not have any candidates for partisan county offices in any counties associated with the legislative races, so nowhere were there ballots with Libertarian candidates for most offices on the ballot. The news article from 2014, conflated the situations in 2012 and 2014, and Linda McCulloch doesn’t appear to understand the conditions. The only “math” involved was that whoever made the 2012 change did not understand Boolean algebra.
(2015) The omnibus election bill made a non-substantive change to MCA 13-10-209.
In 2016, there was no Libertarian primary. There were Libertarian candidates for 3 of 6 statewide offices (Montana elects its governor and statewide executive offices in the presidential election year. If there were no senate race, a house race with a Libertarian candidates, and no PSC race, it would be possible for 4 of 7 partisan races to have a Libertarian candidate. But all such possibilities were in counties with partisan county offices, and Libertarians very rarely run for county office.
In 2017, the omnibus election bill did not change MCA 13-10-209.
Summary:
MCA 13-10-209 was amended in 2001 in reaction to the 2000 Reform Primary. It still should have permitted a contested primary to be on the primary ballot.
MCA 13-10-209 was erroneously amended in 2005.
The error from 2005 prevented the 2012 Libertarian primary even though there was the contested US senate race.
MCA 12-10-209 was amended in 2013, to reverse the error from 2005.
The Libertarian Party did not qualify for a Primary in 2014 and 2016, since they had no contested races, and nowhere did they have candidates for a majority of offices.
It is possible that they qualify for a primary in 2018. I’ll explain in a separate note.
Does the Libertarian Party qualify for a primary in 2018?
There are two conditions, either of which must be met. (1) There must be a contested race. There are none at a statewide level, no legislative, and no PSC races. But it is conceivable that there are county races – but Libertarians rarely run for county offices. Precinct committee offices don’t count. (2) There must be a majority of partisan offices with a Libertarian candidate.
All three statewide offices have a Libertarian candidate. There is no Libertarian candidate for either PSC seat. Even if there is no Libertarian legislative candidate, there will be between 3/4 and 3/6 offices with Libertarian candidates. Some counties don’t have partisan county offices.
In non-partisan counties with no PSC race in 2018, either 3/4 or 3/5 of the offices will have a Libertarian candidate in 2018 even if there are no legislative candidates (3/5 is the condition if there is a senate race; 3/4 if there is only a house race). With no partisan county races, a majority of the offices have a Libertarian candidate.
This includes Big Horn, Broadwater, Carbon, Custer, Deer Lodge, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Park, Sanders, and Silver Bow.
In non-partisan counties with a PSC race in 2018, it is possible that 3/6 of the will have a Libertarian candidate. This would require that the senate race be on the ballot. But Fergus, Petroleum, Roosevelt, and Valley don’t have a senate race, so there will be a Libertarian in 3/5 of races (4/5 for HD-30 in Fergus). Garfield has a senate race, so it is the only non-partisan county where the Libertarians only have candidates for 3/6 of offices.
So that is 15 counties that qualify for a Libertarian primary ballot.
It is conceivable that some partisan counties also qualify. But they typically have 6 or so partisan offices and no Libertarian candidates for county offices.
If I am correct about this, it is likely a violation of equal protection. If I live in Deer Lodge, I could vote in the Libertarian primary, and write-in a candidate for US Senator. If I live in Cascade, I would not be able to vote for a write-in candidate.
The Green Senate primary is a bit odd. One of the candidates is a former (fairly recent) paid employee of the Republican Party. He has also run as Libertarian legislative candidate. He says that his work for the Republican Party was more because of professional rather than ideological reasons. He was paid, and he learned about political campaigning. But the Republicans may be interested in having a Green senate candidate to peel votes from John Tesler (D) who is running for re-election.
A Green legislative candidate is apparently believed to not have Green beliefs. In Montana, the filing fee is $15.