A recent article by Charles S. Johnson stated that Secretary of State Linda McCulloch is going to decide whether or not to allow a primary ballot for the Libertarian Party due to an extra cost to Montana taxpayers of $250,000 to $290,000 for the printing a Libertarian ballot. There’s never been much ado about the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to provide voters with Democrat or Republican primary ballots in the State of Montana, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the two major parties for primaries across the nation. There is also not a lot of mention when a school district wants a special elections ballot (separate from a primary or general election) for an increase to a tax-levy, as the Corvallis School District is having on a ballot scheduled for May this year.
Let’s say that McCulloch decides not to spend any money for the Libertarian primary ballot and allows Libertarian Senate Candidates, Dan Cox and Jerry McConnell, both to be placed on the General Election Ballot for U.S. Senator. What would be the fairness to the major party candidates, who lost in the primary election? For instance, at this time Denny Rehberg is the odds on favorite to win the Republican primary. So shouldn’t Dennis Teske, his challenger, be allowed to be on the November ballot also, by just passing the June primary altogether? Why not just do away with the Republican and Democrat primaries and save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of future dollars rather than quibble over two to three hundred thousands of soon to become worthless dollars?
David A. Merrick
Corvallis