Despite submitting more than10,000 signatures, ‘Bozeman Plastics Initiative’ came up 389 signatures short of the requirements to get on November’s ballot.
Nathan Gracey, a volunteer for Montana Plastic Free, said the group had been keeping its own count as they gathered signatures, but didn’t expect as many rejections.
“It wasn’t a huge surprise, but it definitely was frustrating to come that close after months of work” Gracey said.
According to the Gallatin County Elections Office, 28% of the signatures processed were rejected. The biggest reason was signees were not registered voters in the City of Bozeman.
Other reasons included duplicates, illegible information, and signatures not matching. Ballot initiatives require 25% of voter signatures to appear on a special election ballot and 15% on a general election. Since Bozeman is not holding a municipal election this year, the city used the 25% threshold, but Gracey says there still may be a path forward.
“There is potential grounds for a lawsuit to be filed against either the city of Bozeman or the Gallatin County Elections office to try and lower that percentage to 15%” Gracey said.
Missoula organizers for a similar ballot initiative withdrew their petition last week, they were only required to hit the 15% threshold.
