Understanding Open Primaries and Majority-Winner Elections for Montana 

Resources explaining Constitutional Initiatives 126 and 127 in Big Sky Country.

In November 2024, Montanans will decide whether to adopt open primaries and majority-winner elections in Big Sky Country races. Sightline Institute has researched these types of elections for years and studied their impacts in Alaska, where residents elected to adopt this system in 2020.

Downloads

Questions? Contact:

Sightline_AliceBuckley-1

Alice Buckley

Fellow, alice@sightline.org
Jeannette_L_Full

Jeannette Lee

Alaska Research Director, jeannette@sightline.org

Media coverage: Montana could adopt Alaska-style elections

Screenshot from Montana Public Radio on the story "How we vote is on the ballot"

“We are not as polarized as our politicians. But the system that we’re operating in and the way national politics has trickled down into the states—those things have really shaped a government that is more polarized than the electorate it’s representing.”

–Jeannette Lee, Alaska Research Director,
speaking on that state’s experience of majority-winner elections on Montana Public Radio 

Opinion: Alaska’s new elections system is making politics less terrible, The Missoulian, by Rebecca Braun, former policy director for Independent Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (2014-2018), lead author of Alaska’s Elections Reforms: Voter Perceptions and Experiences, by McKinley Research Group, and currently at Alaska Venture Fund 

Screenshot from the Missoulian for the story "Alaska's new elections system is making politics less terrible."