County voters opt for nonpartisan elections

Lewis and Clark County will be the 17th county in Montana to hold nonpartisan elections for county offices, after nearly 56 percent of voters approved the measure in the Nov. 5 election.

According to preliminary county election results on the county website, more than 18,000 voters cast ballots on the questions, with more than 10,000 of those votes favoring nonpartisan elections. Provisional ballots were added to the vote total yesterday afternoon, after our press time.

The offices affected by the change include the three commission seats, County attorney, the sheriff/coroner, County superintendent of public schools, the clerk of court and the county clerk and recorder.

Lewis and Clark County Commissioner Susan Good Geise, who has been vocal in her support for the change, told the BVD this may be the most important thing she’s done in her public life.

“I am very, very happy,” she said. “This was the absolute right result. This will be good for many generations to come."

Geise began advocating for the change after seeing that the partisan system had the potential to disenfranchise voters, and after seeing that partisan politics didn’t really play a role in decisions made at the county level.

She worked with legislators since the 2017 session to ensure counties could legally put the question of nonpartisan election before voters. This year the legislature passed House Bill 129, which allowed just that.

While Geise has been the most vocal proponent of the move to nonpartisan county elections, she said the idea received a thumbs up from the Helena daily paper and that it was the full county commission, comprised of two Republicans and a Democrat, that approved putting the question before voters.

The result in Lewis and Clark County stands in contrast to Gallatin County, where 54 percent of voters defeated a similar measure there.

A story by the Helena Independent Record that explored the dichotomy of the two elections cited political science professors at Montana State University and Carrol college. David Parker at MSU research showed that party affiliation is the best predictor of a candidate’s behavior, while Alexander Street at Carroll said research suggests nonpartisan elections make voters less informed.

“We will see,” Geise said, “but I’ve already had more people contact me since that passed to maybe throw their hats in.”

Giese, who has a long list of accomplishments as a member of the Republican Party, including a term in the Montana legislature in the 80s and a stint as chair of the Montana Republican Party, is no stranger to the realities of partisan politics, and she’s not necessarily buying the arguments out of academia. In her opinion, party affiliation is not the predictor it once was of how someone will govern.

“I continue to believe that it is hard to break down what a Republican or a Democrat is these days, because the parties themselves are so divided,” she said, having seen first-hand the infighting among different factions within the Republican Party during the process that led to her appointment to the county commission in 2013.

Geise said Republicans, who have seen the more hardcore right-wingers battling it out with people they allege to be RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), have been dealing with internal strife for some time and she expects Democrats will feel the full weight of similar divisions within their own party soon, as moderate Democrats face backlash from the burgeoning progressive wing of their party. She pointed out that as a “rock-ribbed Republican,” she’s alarmed by the growing faction in the Democrat party calling Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi too conservative.

Likewise, Giese’s not swayed by the notion that voters will be less informed. She said there’s nothing stopping candidates from telling voters their party affiliation during their campaigns.

“The only time nonpartisan applies is when you file, and on the ballot,” she said, adding that even cursory research can reveal where a person stands on issues.

“I don’t make any apologies for saying, ‘You know what, voter? Educate yourself.’ We are hip deep in information. You have to just open up your eyes and get off your duff,” she said.