City Election Ballots to Include One Contested Race
Published on September 25, 2023
HELENA, Mont. – The election ballots that City of Helena residents receive this fall will include just one contested race due to a lack of candidate filings. Despite having three Commission seats and seven Helena Citizens’ Council (HCC) positions open, only one of the HCC races will require a vote. State law (MCA 7-5-4410) allows local governments to forego voting on uncontested races.
“The cancelling of uncontested races is fairly common for cities and towns across Montana,” says Dan Clark, Director of the Montana State University Local Government Center. “Montana’s legislature has passed laws allowing cities and towns to cancel an election with uncontested races to save the taxpayers from paying the expense of running an election when the outcome is known.”
The City Commission gave consensus to move forward with the single race ballot during its’ regular meeting on Sept. 11. The City Commission will formally consider a resolution to forgo voting on the uncontested races at an upcoming meeting.
By only including the contested HCC race on the ballot, the City estimates it will spend around $30,000 on the Election. A full ballot that includes all the uncontested races is estimated to cost between $60,000 and $70,000. Fewer races require substantially less resources to process the results, which significantly impacts the cost to the City.
For the uncontested races, the outcomes can’t change legally, even if votes are collected. To be considered a qualified candidate for office, an individual must either register during the candidate filing period which closed June 19 or register as a write-in candidate by Sept. 5. For any races that are uncontested when the write-in deadline passes, the outcome of the race is determined.
“It is unfortunate we did not have more interested candidates to provide our residents will a full election,” says Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins. “Given the circumstances, however, the decision to save taxpayer’s money is a responsible approach. I’m hopeful that this is an anomaly and future elections receive much more interest.”
The 2023 Municipal Election will take place on Nov. 7. This election will be done by mail, so registered voters will receive ballots by mail. More information on the election can be found at www.lccountymt.gov/vote/.