FINAL INITIATIVE SIGNATURE TALLY

HELENA—Today Secretary of State Brad Johnson announced the final tally of initiative signatures for the 2008 general election. Only one citizen initiative qualified for the ballot – I-155, identified in its short title as the Healthy Montana Kids Plan Act.

Johnson said, “Many Montanans take a healthy pride in our initiative process. Initiative organizers and counter-organizers worked hard on their proposals, win or lose. That’s because the people really care about our state.  Citizen involvement is one of the reasons this state’s election process is among the best in the nation.”

In addition to I-155, there will be two ballot issues referred by the Legislature on the ballot. They are LR-118, identified in its first section as a tax levy for the university system, and C-44, a constitutional amendment affecting the way in which certain public funds are invested.

The final signature tallies are as follows:

CI-99 – 100 signatures out of 44,615 required.  CI-99 qualified in 0 house districts of the required 40 house districts for a constitutional initiative.

CI-100 – 26,332 signatures out of 44,615 required.  CI-100 qualified in 16 house districts of the required 40 house districts for a constitutional initiative.

I-155 – 31,349 signatures out of 22,308 required.  I-155 qualified in 64 house districts, which was well in excess of the required 34 house districts for a statutory initiative.

I-156 – 0 signatures received out of 22,308 required.  Montana VOTES, the statewide voter registration database, does not indicate that any signature petitions were received nor processed by counties.

Further information about ballot issues can be found on the Secretary of State’s website at http://sos.mt.gov/ELB/archives/2008/Ballot_Issues.asp.

###