Ballots for Missoula Primary to Be Sent This Month, Elections Office Explains Why

It may feel like the November elections are a long way off, but some Missoula voters will be getting primary ballots at the end of this month.

"There will be a municipal primary for Ward 2," Missoula Elections Administrator Rebecca Connors said. "The statute is fairly clear that if there are more than three candidates so if there is 0-3 candidates within a ward then a primary is not required but if there is more than three, which is four or more than a primary is required. We will be seeing a primary on September 15th."

The four candidates in Ward 2 are Aylinn Inmon, Harlan wells, Anita Greene and Jack Rowan. Although there is a primary this time, there wasn’t a primary during the 2013 Missoula mayoral race when there were also four candidates on the ballot. Wells says the decisions are inconsistent.

"I just wish that they had stayed consistent across the board with the number of candidates," Wells said. "You look back at the mayor's race, where they decide that a primary wasn't needed, and then in Ward 6, where there's three, they somehow thought that wasn't going to be confusing. But then, when there's one conservative and three liberals on the ticket it is somehow confusing and there needs to be a primary."

Connors says the wording of the state’s non-partisan primary laws is a bit confusing and didn't lead to an easy decision.

"The wording is a little funny with some double negatives and in 2013 they added a  component to the statute which hasn't been amended since 1979 requiring them to add another level to calculating if a primary is required or not," Connors said. "So between our offices, the County Attorney’s Office, and the Secretary of State, we were all involved to make a decision to interpret that statute."

The decision isn’t just based on the number of candidates in an election, it also takes into account the number of offices on the ballot. To make things even more confusing, the 2017 elections will have three offices on the ballot requiring an even more complex decision.