Montana Supreme Court Overturns Tie, Gives State House Race to Democrats

Tampa Bay Online / Associated Press ^ | December 28, 2004 | John MacDonald

[Stoat]

Montana Supreme Court Overturns Tie, Gives State House Race to Democrats

By John MacDonald Associated Press Writer
Published: Dec 28, 2004
 

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a decision that determined a disputed legislative race was tied, likely giving Democrats control of the state House of Representatives.

The 6-1 decision threw out a lower court ruling from earlier this month that seven contested ballots had properly been counted for Constitution Party candidate Rick Jore.

The high court declared "one or more" contested ballots in the tied race invalid. Throwing out even one of those ballots means the vote tally swings to Democrat Jeanne Windham, the Supreme Court said.

That, in turn, creates a 50-50 tie between Republicans and Democrats in the House and means the next House speaker likely will be from the party of Democratic Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer. The party that controls the governor's office in Montana breaks ties in electing House speakers.

The legislative race was declared a tie after a recount earlier this month. That gave outgoing Republican Gov. Judy Martz authority to appoint the winner. She chose the conservative Jore, giving the Republicans a 50-49 lead over Democrats in the House, with Jore as a lone Constitution Party candidate.

The lower court ruling overturned by the Supreme Court had upheld the tie and left Jore's appointment in place.

Mike Meloy, the attorney who filed the lawsuit over the disputed ruling, hailed the court's decision.

"This is a great ruling, not only for Jeanne but for the system," he said. "The Supreme Court followed the precedent that has been set since almost the beginning of statehood."

Jore said he was surprised and disappointed and wanted further justification from the court.

"Obviously I disagree (with the ruling) and I'm disappointed but it's not the end of the world," he said.

In its order, the Supreme Court did not say why it concluded that one or more of the ballots counted for Jore was invalid, but said it would issue a "full written and published opinion" later.

Democrats hold a majority of seats in the Montana Senate as well.

[steplock]

I do believe that the legal residents of the State of Montana need to remind the "judges" just WHO the people are (WE the People)- and remind them just what powers the Constitution gave the citizens to protect the country from judicial tyranny.

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

No, MT is historically Democrat. It has had, I think, only two Republican U.S. senators since statehood.

The GOP cannot take WY and MT for granted in state races.

True. Its current GOP senator, Conrad Burns (who is up in 2006) has seen some challenging races, though the state is mostly a cinch for the Republicans in presidential races.

[tuckrdout]

Montana is and always has been, INDEPENDENT.

But, now a bunch of wackos from Washington State have flooded our state, running from the crazy regulations and taxes in their own. Problem is, they still vote democrat! They don't seem to be able to make the connection between the democrats and their state government problems!

[tuckrdout]

Exactly.

[FreedomHasACost]

What happened in this particular district is that they ran a republican and a democrat and Jore. The district is very conservative but they split the vote.

With the governor what happened was he deceived the people into believing he was conservative, he had no record to prove he was not and talked like he was. He will either govern like a republican or not win reelection.

As a whole Montana has more and more Californians and the likes moving in but the major problem as I see it is: there are certain things that are important to Montanans....guns, property rights, along with a leave me alone attitude I can take care of myself, but some have no common sense to see passed a false front.

That is my take.

[Libertina]

Regrets that they are WA nutbars. We don't want their sorry a**es either and are just getting a handle on their craziness now. The problem is that after these liberals muck up an entire state, they want to migrate out of it and "start fresh" somewhere else. Montana needs to enact residency qualifications.

[BigSkyFreeper]

remember that liberals in Montana aren't like liberals in California though.

Many of them ARE liberals from California.

[EternalVigilance]

Once again the mistaken notion that 'my one vote doesn't count' meets reality...

[BigSkyFreeper]

The GOP cannot take WY and MT for granted in state races.

They often do. The GOP, like many on this thread think that states like Montana and Wyoming are comfortably GOP. That's called a false sense of confidence. True, Montana hasn't had very many GOP Governors, Montana hasn't had very many GOP Senators either, especially in the last 40 years. Voting national is much different than voting statewide.

[HolgerDansk]

The "split the gun lobby" (hunters from other gun owners) tactic has been well employed long term. The first group to be split from the block was the sporter/target shooters (NSSF now runs the national competitions instead of the NRA). Splitting the hunters out of the NRA will leave the folks who own guns for self defense, which is the smallest group, also the one that doesn't "poll well".

[BigSkyFreeper]

Oh my gosh, shades of Washington...

Shouldn't surprise anyone that most of the people in the western part of the state are from WA and CA.

[BigSkyFreeper]

With the influx of dingbats from WA and CA, we've seen Socialism run amok in the ballot initiatives. Higher taxes, levies, etc. They come in here and start pushing their nonsense on the rest of us. I hope that many of you from Montana who smoke will quit on New Years Day. Tell those Socialist bastards they need to find their health care tax somewhere else.

[FreedomHasACost]

I don't smoke but my dad has actually convinced my cousin to stop because of the new tax. He hasn't since the beginning of the month.

I wish Montana could keep new folks from moving in or something.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I'm a smoker, and I'm gonna quit whether I want to or not. I'm just not going to sit back and watch the money be squandered yet again.

[Brian328i]

*sigh*
We can't keep them out, even the "Welcome to Montana, now go home!" signs wouldn't work, nor "Don't Californicate Montana".

Now to dream of the hell hole Montana is coming, or should I say is? Only 4-6 more years till I can leave, hopefully.

[tuckrdout]

That's right. As Gov. Martz stated, the majority of people who went to the polls on Nov. 2, voted for a conservative----yet now they are getting a liberal.

[tuckrdout]

I disagree Joe. I think the Republican Party here, is weak. They really ran a weak campaign this year. I think they did an especially poor job, against the nut job who won the governorship!

And now that we have P.T. Barnum in the governor's chair, and the rest of the liberal circus in the house and senate, it is going to be very hard to get the truth out there. They alter reality and the press eats it up.

(BTW, can you believe this wacko, saving full garbage cans so that he can rummage through it; and setting up a table in the hallway of the Capitol, to meet with VIP's BEFORE he is governor?!)

[tuckrdout]

I especially enjoyed this from the article:

"To get to Whitefish from the East Coast means a series of smaller and smaller planes, until the last leg from Salt Lake City, when you are basically shoved into a lawn mower with wings. The first thing you notice when you walk out of the one-terminal Kalispell airport is that every car is dirty. Whether a sports car or an SUV, the vastness of the state means long drives, windshields splattered with bug carcasses, and doors caked with dust."

[GunnyHartman]

" Is Montana conservative any more?"

We did vote in a Republican Congressman (our only Congressional Seat). We do have one Republican Senator. We voted in Dubya by a wide margin.

Unfortunately a DemonRat took office in the Governor's Mansion, the State House is now DemonRat controlled, and this latest recount victory by the DemonRats gives us a 50-50 tie in the State Senate. I don't understand what happened here. Heck Montanans even voted for a whopping $1 increase in cigarette taxes.

I think those G** D*** hippies in Missoula (our own San Francisco) had something to do with it.

[Lurking Libertarian]

According to this article, the basis of the decision was this:

At issue in the House race were seven ballots that had ovals filled in for both Mr. Cross and Mr. Jore. Election officials awarded those ballots to Mr. Jore, as did a recount board.

Ms. Windham, a businesswoman, appealed to District Court in Lake County. Judge Kim Christopher upheld the decision of the recount board, arguing that otherwise the race would go to Ms. Windham, for whom none of the disputed ballots were cast.

After Governor Martz broke the tie by appointing Mr. Jore to the seat, Ms. Windham appealed to the Montana Supreme Court, and the seven contested ballots were driven to the court by a state Highway Patrol officer.

In its brief order, the Supreme Court declared "one or more" of the contested ballots invalid, a move that broke the tie in favor of Ms. Windham.

"I'm disappointed," said Mr. Jore, a businessman in Charlo. "I felt the ballots in question were clear." He added, "They obviously intended to vote for me." Mr. Jore said three of the voters whose ballots were in question called him and said they had intended to vote for him.

Mike Meloy, a lawyer for Anita Big Spring, a voter who brought the case to the Supreme Court, said the decision was the right one. "There is no way for anybody to tell from those ballots what the voter intended," Mr. Meloy said. "Those voters violated the instructions given them, which was don't change your ballot and if you make a mistake, ask for a new ballot. Why would you want to give special consideration to someone who didn't follow instructions?"