An about face from the Montana Supreme Court, which has again removed an initiative from the ballot in Butte Silver Bow County. The judges vacated their ruling late Thursday, after learning some ballots had already gone out, and were returned without the initiative on them.
In its ruling, the court said it would have never granted the injunction had it known ballots had been printed and already mailed. John Mayer with the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, which represents the organizers of the initiative campaign, offered a potential solution ahead of the Court’s second ruling.
“We’ve asked the Montana Supreme Court to direct the Election Administrator to print supplemental ballots to everybody, every elector and have them be able to fill those out and submit those independently of the current ballots that have already been sent out” Mayer told Yellowstone Public Radio Thursday.
However, the Court said there is nothing in the State's election law that would allow for adding a supplemental ballot. Mayer also asked why ballots were printed without the initiative, which a lower court had ordered on the ballot August 12th, ahead of the state's August 20th certification deadline. The initiative was ordered off the ballot on appeal August 28th.
YPR requested comment on the timeline from the Butte Silver Bow Election Administrator, but did not receive a response. Either way, the Court ruled it has no basis to order an accounting from election officials on why the initiative was not on the ballot when the order placing it there was no longer in effect.
