Montana Supreme Court sides with backers of top-four primary ballot initiative, overrules attorney general

The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a decision by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen to block from the ballot in 2024 a citizen initiative that would create top-four primary elections in the state. In a unanimous ruling, Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote that the attorney general erred in determining that the initiative violated the Montana Constitution’s prohibition on “log-rolling,” or bundling multiple unrelated amendments into a single measure for voters to approve, and ordered Knudsen to refer the initiative to Montana’s top election administrator, the secretary of state. “I...