HB 221 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Revise election laws to require certain local elections to take place in even-numbered years

HB 221 would require Montana municipalities to hold all elections for local officials in even-numbered years instead of odd years. It directly affects cities and towns currently scheduling local elections in odd years (like 2025 or 2027). The bill amends state election law to specify that municipal elections must occur during even-year general elections, with transition rules for current officeholders (e.g., one-year terms for those ending in 2026, special elections for terms ending in 2028/2030). This would eliminate odd-year local elections statewide and align them with state and federal election cycles.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
House Passage
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 15, 2025 Last action May 22, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 4 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0221_2(2).pdf HB0221_2(3).pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill amends the text of Section 13-1-107 regarding municipal election costs. The primary change is a renumbering of subsections, where the existing provision on municipal election funding was moved from subsection (2) to subsection (3), likely to accommodate a new subsection (2) that was added elsewhere in the bill or to align with other legislative changes.
Scope change
The scope of the bill remains focused on election administration and funding, but the internal structure of the statute has been altered to renumber existing provisions.
TECHNICAL

Renumbered the subsection regarding municipal election costs from (2) to (3), indicating a structural adjustment within the statute.

Changed the capitalization of the phrase 'section 13-1-107' to 'SECTION 13-1-107' in the amendment header.

Floor votes · House Feb 7, 2025

How they voted

5742
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 100
Feb 7, 2025
D Democratic42
1 Yea 41 Nay
97% Nay
R Republican58
56 Yea 1 Nay 1
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
27
Key actions
3
Committee
4
Amendments
1
Apr 7, 2025
Amended
(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Local Government
upper
Feb 14, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Local Government
upper
Feb 7, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (57-42-1)
house
Jan 31, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) State Administration
lower
Jan 31, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) State Administration
lower
Jan 16, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) State Administration
lower
Jan 15, 2025
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Lukas Schubert
Lukas Schubert
RRepublican
MT
8