Taxpayers fund primaries. Why can’t we vote in all of them?

I just got a flier in the mail from the Montana Republican Party asking me to vote no on CI-126. That’s the ballot initiative to allow a primary election where the top four vote getters advance to the general election.  

Instead of Montana voters having to vote a Republican, Democratic, Green, or Libertarian party ballot in the primary election, all candidates of those parties would be listed on the same, unified, ballot. 

I think it’s a good idea, and, thanks for asking. I’ll tell you why. I was chairman of the Montana Democratic Party for four years, 2009-2013. Before that I had been involved in Democratic Party politics since 1987. Political parties do not wholly serve the needs or respect the ideals of American voters. They exist in large part to maintain “purity” of opinion and stifle dissent to further their own political self-interests as determined by party leaders. In short, they are basically top-down. 

In 1995, after a crushing defeat for legislative Democrats, a group of Democrats and I founded a group we called Conversations 2000 and went around the state of Montana listening to what people had to say about the Democratic Party. We invited Democrats and former Democrats to the meetings. By rough count we listened to 450 people in over 35 towns. The object was to figure out what might be wrong with our party and how we could fix it.  

Our conclusion was that the party was dismissive of people who did not agree 100% with the party platform. The most telling exchange I had was with a former Democrat, a pro-life Catholic. He told me he disagreed with the party stance that supported abortion, but he could swallow that and still vote for Democrats because he believed in everything else the party stood for. What he couldn’t take was the way he was treated by party members because of his anti-abortion stance. 

“I was shunned,” he said to me, “and if that’s the way I was going to be treated I didn’t want to be a Democrat anymore.” 

The Republican Party is no different as far as purity of position and loyalty to the party is concerned. Elected officials who veer from party doctrine find themselves challenged — generally successfully — by more loyal candidates in the primaries. Democrats do that, too. 

What I like about CI-126 is that it helps to remove party control of who runs in primaries.  

CI-126 was spearheaded by former Republican state Representative and longtime Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner. Garner feels that the current primary system shuts out the 40% of Montanans who do not consider themselves members of any political party. 

Currently Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, California and Washington State have primaries somewhat similar to the CI-126 proposal. 

The Republican and Democratic parties in Montana do their best to suppress third parties, but they also often try to recruit candidates for them. It all depends on whether the existence of a third party candidate will take votes away from their major party opposition candidate. In this 2024 election, Republicans allegedly recruited a candidate for the Green Party to oppose Sen. Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy, hoping that poorly informed Green Party voters would vote for the Green Party senate candidate. Green Party votes generally come at the expense of the Democratic vote. The Democratic Party sued to remove the Green Party from the ballot and failed. 

Likewise, the Democratic Party tries to find Libertarian Party candidates because their votes take away from Republican votes. 

In a top four primary system the effects of this gamesmanship might be lessened, especially if the companion measure, CI-127 passes. That requires a winning candidate to get more than 50% of the vote.  

Party primaries are paid for by taxpayers and conducted by publicly paid county elections officials. Political parties do not contribute money to the process that is conducted on their behalf and for their benefit. If all taxpayers pay for the primary elections, it seems fair that all taxpayers get to participate fully in the primary elections and not be restricted to having to vote the ballot of only one party. 

Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.