Montana’s primary in 2012 is on June 5. Parties entitled to nominate by primary are the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect Parties. When filing closed for this year’s primary, two Libertarians had filed to run for U.S. Senate in the Libertarian Party.
On March 20, Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch ruled that the Libertarian Party may not have a primary this year, and that she will print the names of both Libertarians on the November ballot. She made this decision, based on section 13-10-209(2). Before 2005, that section said, “It is not necessary to print a primary ballot for a political party which does not have candidates for more than half of the offices on the ballot in even-year elections if no more than one candidate files for nomination by that party for any of the offices on the ballot.”
In 2005, that section was amended to say, “An election administrator does not need to prepare a primary ballot for a political party if: (a) the party does not have candidates for more than half of the offices to appear on the ballot; or (b) no more than one candidate files for nomination by that party for any of the offices to appear on the ballot.”
Some Montana Libertarians have suggested that the Secretary of State allow the party to nominate a candidate for U.S. Senate by convention, but the Secretary of State rejected that idea. This year the Libertarian Party does have candidates for five of the nine statewide partisan races on the ballot, but it does not have candidates for a majority of legislative races. Montana does permit write-ins in primaries. The Secretary of State says it would cost $380,000 to print Libertarian primary ballots. Because Montana doesn’t have registration by party, election officials can’t know how many voters would request a Libertarian primary ballot, so election officials say they would need to print as many Libertarian primary ballots as are printed for the major parties. See this story.
