Not according to my reading of the statutes governing community college elections — but someone using the online handle of “Mike” disagrees. Here’s what he posted on FVCC’s website yesterday:
The ballots were illegal. Each candidate needed to be categorized according to seat they were running for. You can not have five people running open for two seats, each candidate has to run for a seat.
Was Holston running against Lund? Was Ursula running against Shannon?
I think this ballot is all screwed up and the election needs to be held again.
FVCC’s response: “The election was run under the appropriate statutes for existing community college districts.” FVCC’s wording can be interpreted as an assertion that the election was conducted under the legal authority granted to the college by the state, which is subtly different, but different nonetheless, from asserting compliance with the law. I would have said “FVCC’s trustee election fully complied with Montana law.” Despite FVCC’s inartful wording, I think that’s the message the response was intended to convey.
The applicable law is found in Title 20, Chapter 15, of the Montana Code Annotated. Community colleges must have 7-member governing boards, with trustees serving terms of three years:
20-15-221. Election of trustees after organization of community college district. (1) After organization, the registered electors of the community college district qualified to vote under the provisions of 20-20-301 shall annually vote for trustees on the regular school election day provided for in 20-3-304. (School districts also hold annual elections for trustees that serve three-year terms.)
Ergo, Mike is wrong when he argues that “Each candidate has to run for a seat.” There’s no such requirement. The ballot was legal (although poorly designed). The top two or three vote getters are elected to the board of trustees, no matter how small their percentages of the votes cast.
Although legal, there’s a political problem with this system. It invites voters to game the system by casting just one vote to provide the maximum advantage for their favorite candidate.
The other political problems are (a) annual elections, and (b) not holding school elections as part of the general election in even numbered years. I’ll address those subjects in another post.