City approves primaries, mail-in ballot election; races set

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) With the field set and election day closing in, voters in Missoula will participate in a fall primary and be voting by mail.

The Missoula City Council on Monday night made the process official by voting to hold primary elections for Wards 2, 3 and 6, along with the race for mayor. Each of those races have three or more candidates, and city officials want the field narrowed to two candidates by November's General Election.

“If you narrow it down from three or more to two, then any person who gets into office is elected by at least 51% of the voters,” said council member Amber Sherrill. “If we ran an election that could be decided by three, four or five, not even 50% of the voting public would be electing those people.”

Last week, the City Council's Committee of the Whole advanced the measure to Monday night, where it passed 7 to 2. Council members Bob Campbell and Sandra Vasecka opposed the measure.

“There's pros and cons whatever way you do it,” said Vasecka. “A lot of my constituents, and I myself, think that in-person voting is the most secure way to run an election.”

City Clerk Clair Trimble last week placed the cost of the mayor's primary at around $200,000 and the cost for a primary in a single ward at around $125,000. She said the costs were only estimates.

Council member Stacie Anderson said there is little evidence showing that in-person voting is any safer than voting by mail.

“They've done an outstanding job of having lots of transparency,” she said of the Missoula County Elections Office. “Also, it has been shown that mail-in elections have a higher turnout. People are able to take a little more time to fill out their ballot and they're better informed because they can research.”

The filing deadline closed last week. Below are the candidates registered to run. An (*) indicates the candidate is an incumbent.

Mayor

Andrea Davis (*)

Brandi Atanasoff

Shawn Knopp

Ward 1

Elizabeth Craske

Lucas Moody

Ward 2

Hayden Cook

Justin Ponton

Tim Garrison

Rebecca Dawson

Michele Whitmire

Ward 3

Jennifer Savage (*)

Nathan Coyan

Daniel Carlino (*)

David Knudson

Jon Vivas

Ward 4

Mike Nugent (*)

David Quattrocchi

Ward 5

Stacie Anderson (*)

Ward 6

Chris Foster

Kristen Jordan (*)

Ward 6 (unexpired)

Sean Patrick McCoy

Sandra Vasecka (*)

Valeda Jonessian