Recalls haven't made the ballot here (2024)

Horse sense: Commentary by Charles S. Johnson

HELENA — Montana, like California, has a recall provision instate law that allows voters to petition for special elections onwhether to toss its elected officials out of office.

But unlike in California, where voters may decide Oct. 7 whetherto recall Gov. Gray Davis, no statewide or judicial district recalleffort has ever made the ballot in Montana.

It's not been for the lack of trying. Since Montana voters, by a57 to

43 percent margin, passed Initiative 73 in 1976, 10 recallefforts have been launched and submitted to the secretary of state,files show. Some were serious attempts; others were more likeone-person screeds against an officeholder with no follow-upaction.

Four recall efforts were initiated against Montana districtjudges by those angry about decisions or court operations.

In one case, a Helena

district judge ruled in 1992 that recall petitions wereinsufficient because the allegations were too vague againstthen-District Judge James Sorte of Wolf Point.

Two recall efforts were lodged against a pair of statelegislators by constituents unhappy with their votes or the billsthey sponsored. Both were rejected for failing to meet the legalstandards of recall or containing vague allegation.

The secretary of state quashed an effort to start a recalleffort against then-U.S. Sen. Paul Hatfield,

D-Mont., in 1978 for his vote in favor of ratifying the PanamaCanal treaties because state law doesn't provide for recall offederal officials. Likewise, the secretary of state in 1988declined to intervene in a local effort to recall the mayor ofCascade because the state office has no jurisdiction over localrecall efforts.

An attempt in 1978 to recall then-state Fish and Game DirectorRobert Wambach was turned down by the secretary of state becausethe allegations

didn't meet legal

requirements.

A 1989 move to recall then-Gov. Stan Stephens for incompetencewas rejected by the secretary of state because the grounds forrecall weren't sufficiently established.

Some people have threatened recall efforts against Gov. JudyMartz, but never filed any petitions.

On the local level, a

number of efforts have been launched against local governmentand school

officials, but no statewide registry exists to see how many, ifany, succeeded.

The passage of Montana's recall initiative was controversial.Sponsoring it were a pair of little-known groups, "IndependentAmericans" and "Publishers Montana Citizens," with offices inPowell and Ravalli counties. They gathered the signatures of 16,510Montana

voters to qualify the ballot measure. At the same election, theyfailed to pass a constitutional initiative to establish a statebudget

ceiling, according to "An Atlas of Montana Elections1889-1976."

In the 1976 voter information pamphlet, backers said theirinitiative was "designed to give back to the people the power ofrecall which was taken away by the enactment of the 1972 MontanaConstitution." They made appointed officials as well as electedofficials subject to recall because "80 percent of our governmentis presently in the hands of appointed officials."

Opponents said they

didn't object to making elected officials subject to recall, butsaid I-73 went too far by including appointed officials. "Would itapply to state highway patrolmen, game wardens, local police andteachers?" they asked in the voter pamphlet.

The attorney general, writing the ballot description, said, anofficer, either elected or appointed, "could be recalled for anyreason, regardless of a good faith attempt to perform hisduties."

With voters in 45 counties passing the measure anyway, itprevailed by a vote of 155,899 to 115,702.

The battle wasn't over.

Legislators in 1977, unhappy with the broad nature of theinitiative, decided they needed to

provide specific grounds and passed a measure to revise it.

Outraged sponsors of the initiative stormed to the Capitol toprotest any changes to their initiative. Some threatened

legislators.

They vilified those seeking to amend I-73, and ran crudecaricatures of the bill sponsors, particularly the main sponsor,the late,

legendary Rep. Francis Bardanouve, D-Harlem, and theco-sponsors, then-Reps. Mike Meloy, D-Helena, and John Scully,D-Bozeman.

The bill spelled out specific grounds for recall in Montana. Theonly basis for recall, under these legislative changes, is:"physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, neglect of dutyor conviction of malfeasance or misfeasance in office, violation ofthe oath of office or a felony offense enumerated in (the statecriminal code.)"

Legislators also amended the law to say no one may be recalled"for performing a mandatory duty of the office he holds for notperforming any act that, if performed, would subject him toprosecution for official misconduct."

They also changed some of the signature percentagerequirements.

As it stands now in Montana, those wishing to recall a statewideelected official must obtain the signatures of 10 percent of theregistered votes in the previous election. If someone were to starta recall against a Montana statewide official now, it would take62,459 signatures. For others local officials, it's

15 percent of the registered voters in the last election.

Montana's 10 percent requirement is the lowest recall thresholdsof any of the 15 states that allow statewide recall. Californiarequires 12 percent and Oregon 15 percent of the votes cast in theprevious election.

Most of the other states require 20-25 percent of either theregistered voters in the previous election or those who voted torecall a statewide official. Kansas requires a 40 percent thresholdof those voting in the last election.

Will Montanans be more inclined to use the recall route, giventhe massive effort in California? That's hard to say. So far, mostof the Montana recall attempts have had little zip behind them.

That has meant Montanans must wait to the next election if theywant to throw the rascals out. That doesn't happen that ofteneither. Statewide and legislative incumbents overwhelmingly winre-election in Montana.

Charles S. Johnson is chief of the Lee Newspapers State Bureauin Helena. He may be reached at (800) 525-4920 or 443-4920. Hise-mail address is csjohnson@qwest.net.