HELENA — A last-ditch effort to allow counties to conduct the May 25 congressional election by mail failed Friday to win support in the House, plunging elections officials across the state into a mad dash to ready ballots and polling places.
The issue took a partisan divide when the chair of the Montana Republican Party, Rep. Jeff Essmann of Billings, warned last month that conducting balloting exclusively by mail would favor Democrats and could undermine Republican chances of retaining the congressional seat the party has held for two decades.
House Democrats attempted to use a tactic called “blasting” to force a full debate in the chamber, after failing earlier to move the bill from the House Judiciary Committee. But that attempt failed, 51-49, to get the required minimum two-thirds vote to move forward on the bill.
Montana’s only congressional seat became vacant last month when Ryan Zinke resigned to become Interior secretary.
Gov. Steve Bullock chose the earliest possible date to hold an election, saying the state could not afford to delay naming a new representative to the U.S. House.
Voters will choose from candidates who include Republican Greg Gianforte, Democrat Rob Quist and Libertarian Mark Wicks to fill the seat vacated by Zinke.
Election clerks across the state had hoped for a reprieve from having to hold another round of poll voting so soon after last fall’s election, particularly when counties did not budget for the cost of another election.
By some estimates, conducting the special balloting by mail could have saved counties as much as $750,000.
While Democrats were the most vocal in advocating for the vote-by-mail election, Republican Geraldine Custer of Forsyth led the charge on the House floor.
“We don’t have time to waste. And, more importantly, we don’t have money to waste,” said Custer, who predicted that some counties now face “utter chaos.”
Democratic Rep. Sharon Stewart-Peregoy spoke for the Republicans against the mail-only balloting. She said mail-only voting would deprive some people, including members of the state’s Native American tribes, of their right to vote.
“For many of you, it might be OK to vote by mail. For many of you, you’ve never had to fight every election. We have to make sure that we have access to the polls,” she said.
County clerks have been pushing the Legislature to decide the matter, but the proposal had languished in the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.
With Friday’s action, elections officials now have their answer.
“I was hoping for a different outcome. But we’re prepared to run the poll election,” said Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore, who traveled to the state Capitol to watch the proceedings.
About 75 percent of Cascade County’s voters already vote by mail through absentee ballots, she said, but the county had hoped to save $60,000 if they were allowed to conduct the election entirely by mail. Absentee ballots for the special election will be sent out May 1.
Cascade County and the state’s 55 other counties must get to work in reserving polling places and hiring thousands of poll workers.