Wording holds up ballot question

Criticism over the wording of a ballot question on the federal roadless issue prompted Flathead County Commissioner Gary Hall to postpone action until next week.

Hall on Wednesday presented a small audience with several samples for the ballot question aimed at measuring the sentiments of Flathead County voters on how federal roadless lands should be managed.

But questions or criticisms were raised about each of the samples.

"Reinstate the 2001 Clinton roadless rule on the 6.4 million acres of inventoried roadless lands," was one sample.

"If you asked 100 people going into the grocery store what this is, probably two would know," said Fred Hodgeboom, president of Montanans for Multiple Use and a member of a county task force in charge of making recommendations to Gov. Brian Schweitzer on federal roadless lands management.

Schweitzer is preparing a Montana petition on roadless areas in response to a request for state input from the Bush administration.

Another sample asks voters whether roadless lands should be managed "for multiple use purposes, including recreation and timber production" or if roadless lands should be "given formal, long-term protection from all road building."

Whitefish resident Steve Thompson said that type of question creates the false impression that voters must choose between recreation or protecting roadless lands.

"Some of the best recreation I do is in roadless areas," he said. "It's called elk hunting."

Thompson and other conservationists are skeptical of the purposes of having a ballot question on the roadless issue.

"It creates a political football, and maybe some people want it to be a political football," he said.

But Hodgeboom and Hall, among others, say voters' opinions on the matter will be instructive. Voter sentiments would be useful to Forest Service planners, considering that the Flathead National Forest is developing a new long-term forest management plan, Hall said.

"We've got to have something on the ballot," said Dave Skinner, vice president of Montanans for Multiple Use. The wording may never be entirely acceptable to everybody, Skinner said, but it will be valid "as long as the basic intent comes out."

A question that appeared on ballots in four Montana counties, including Flathead, in 2000 showed that more than 80 percent of voters opposed a Clinton administration rule that extended blanket protections to roadless areas across the country.

While Thompson and others say that question was misleading to voters and therefore produced questionable results, Skinner argues that it was "reasonably faithful" in describing what the Clinton rule would do and provided a fair measure of public sentiment on the matter.

Flathead County's population has grown and changed since the 2000 vote, Skinner said, and a new vote on the roadless issue would provide an interesting view of how the county's character has changed.

"I think this is a very important approach, to let the public speak for themselves on this," said Clarice Ryan, another Montanans for Multiple Use member.

Letting voters directly express their views is more appropriate than the state attorney general assuming that he speaks for Montanans, she said.

Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath last month intervened in a national lawsuit that challenges the Bush administration's approach to determining the future of roadless areas.

The county commissioners must submit a ballot question to election officials by March 23, so Hall has been in a rush this week to develop wording.

After hearing from just a few people Wednesday morning, Hall said he would go back to the drawing board and come up with new wording options that will be considered at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com