Montana voters have officially rejected Constitutional Initiative No. 127, which proposed changing the way elections are decided in the state. According to voting results from AP News and the Secretary of State website, 39% of voters were in favor of CI-127, while 61% were against. This decision comes after approximately 19.12% of the total votes in Montana were counted, with 139 full precincts and 289 partial precincts reporting as of 12:17 am on Nov 6.
CI-127 aimed to require that elections for certain offices in Montana must be won by a majority vote, rather than by the largest amount of votes. If a candidate in a major election did not receive over 50% of total votes, a runoff election would have been held between the top two candidates. The official language of CI-127, as outlined by the Montana Voter Information Pamphlet, stated that it would apply to elections for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, attorney general, and other state and federal offices.
With the rejection of CI-127, Montana will continue to decide elections based on a plurality or the largest amount of votes. The decision by voters to maintain the current system indicates a preference for the traditional election process over the proposed majority vote requirement.
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