• "In Montana, the constitution just requires that the person who got the most votes advances or wins the election, which then that's a plurality system. So under our current system, an individual with 35% of the vote could theoretically win the seat.” - Rob Cook, Former Montana State Representative
  

• “CI127 would require that candidates receive a majority of votes (over 50% of the votes cast) to win the election, hence winning candidates would represent the common values of a majority of voters. How would this occur? The Montana legislature would have to pass legislation on how elections would be conducted to ensure winners always receive a majority of votes. There are different ways to set up an election system to require the winner to have a majority of the votes. If Montanans pass CI126, to allow the top four candidates in the primary to be on the ballot in the general election, it is more likely that the winning candidate would receive less than 50% of the votes, as voting would be split among four candidates. CI127 would address the potential for the winning candidates to have as little as 26% of the vote by requiring the legislature to create a mechanism for ensuring the winning candidate receives the majority of the votes.” - Nancy Leifer and Nancy Maxson, League of Women Voters 
  

"Reasons for rejecting ballot initiatives CI-126 & CI-127: 

• essentially implements a ranked-choice voting system; 

• would advance 4 candidates from the primary to the general, no matter how few votes they received in the primary; 

• 50% vote needed to win an election — basically creates run-off elections that could last until December; 

• political games? The sponsor has said that candidates can run for office with a party affiliation without needing the endorsement of the party; 

• outside dark-money groups are supporting these election changes; 

• Alaska is already looking to repeal its ranked-choice voting because it was a terrible experiment; 

• Idaho SOS warns voters of “delays and dollars” ranked choice voting would create if its ballot initiative passes; 

• Washington’s Democrat SOS is against RCV — not a Democrat vs Republican topic; simply bad for elections." 

- Lake County Montana Republicans 

• “When you put something into the hands of the Legislature, who knows what could happen? And that scares folks. They could come up with something completely different than what we’ve envisioned as a public on how they want to do this.” - Chris Hindoien, Mayor of Choteau 
  

Committees formed to SUPPORT the Montana Majority Vote Required to Win Elections Initiative (2024):

MONTANANS FOR ELECTION REFORM

Selected Contributions TO: Montanans for Election Reform* include:

• Article IV
• United America PAC
  
• Action Now Inc.
  
• Sixteen Thirty Fund

*TO VIEW COMMITTEE REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL REPORTS:

• Click on the link - this will bring you to the Montana SOS Public Access Search
  
• Click the "Committee Search" tab
• Enter the Committee Name (the name you clicked for the link) and select the "Election Year" 2024.
• Click the blue "Committe Search" button.  This brings you to the "Public Access Search Results"
• Check a box at the left side of the "Committee Name" then click on either "View Registration" or "View Finance Reports" (blue buttons)
• Check the box of the report you want to see and click the "View Report" button

Committees formed to OPPOSE the Montana Majority Vote Required to Win Elections Initiative (2024):

NO COMMITTEE HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED TO OPPOSE THIS INITATIVE AS OF AUG 20, 2024.

Selected Contributions TO include:

• NA