Montana Filling Vacancies for Certain Statewide Officers Amendment (2022)

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Montana Filling Vacancies for Certain Statewide Officers Amendment
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Election date
November 8, 2022
Topic
Administration of government and State executive official measures
Status
Not on the ballot
Type
Constitutional amendment		Origin
State legislature

The Montana Filling Vacancies for Certain Statewide Officers Amendment was not on the ballot in Montana as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022.[1]


The amendment would have amended the Montana Constitution to require the governor to appoint a person from the same political party as the former officer when a vacancy occurs in the office of the secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, or superintendent of public instruction.[2]

Text of measure

Ballot question

The ballot question would have been as follows:[2]

“

An act submitting to the qualified electors of Montana an amendment to Article VI, section 6, of the Montana constitution to provide that if the office of secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, or superintendent of public instruction becomes vacant, the governor shall appoint a qualified person to fill the vacancy who is from the same political party as the person who vacated the office; and providing an effective date.

[ ] YES on Constitutional Amendment

[ ] NO on Constitutional Amendment[3]

”

Constitutional changes

See also: Article VI, Montana Constitution

The measure would have amended section 6 of Article VI of the state constitution. The following underlined text would have been added, and struck-through text would have been deleted:[2]

Text of Section 6:

Vacancy in Office

(1) If the office of lieutenant governor becomes vacant by his succession to the office of governor, or by his death, resignation, or disability as determined by law, the governor shall appoint a qualified person to serve in that office for the remainder of the term. If both the elected governor and the elected lieutenant governor become unable to serve in the office of governor, succession to the respective offices shall be as provided by law for the period until the next general election. Then, a governor and lieutenant governor shall be elected to fill the remainder of the original term.

(2) If the office of secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, or superintendent of public instruction becomes vacant by death, resignation, or disability as determined by law, the governor shall appoint a qualified person to serve in that office until the next general election and until a successor is elected and qualified. If the person who vacated the office was elected or appointed to the office after being nominated by a political party, the governor shall make the appointment from a list of three nominees submitted by the state central committee of the same political party that nominated the person for the office. The person elected to fill a vacancy shall hold the office until the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was elected.[3]

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Montana Constitution

To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required in both the Montana State Senate and the Montana House of Representatives.

House Bill 635 (HB 635) was introduced on March 12, 2021. The state House approved the bill on April 2, 2021, in a vote of 63-32 with five absent or excused. The amendment was defeated in the state Senate by a vote of 31-19, which did not meet the two-thirds supermajority requirement.[1]

Vote in the Montana House of Representatives
March 31, 2021
Requirement: Two-thirds (66.67 percent) vote of all members of the legislature as a whole, whether in a joint session or separate sessions
YesNoNot voting
Total63325
Total percent63.0%32.0%5.0%
Democrat0303
Republican6322

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Montana State Legislature, "Overview of HB 635," accessed April 2, 2021
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Montana State Legislature, "Text of HB 635" accessed April 2, 2021
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "quotedisclaimer" defined multiple times with different content
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