Montana Code 13-27-225. Review by legislative services division
13-27-225. Review by legislative services division. (1) On receipt of a proposed statutory initiative, statutory referendum, constitutional initiative, or constitutional convention initiative and the proposal’s ballot statements from the office of the secretary of state as provided in 13-27-216(1), 13-27-217(1), 13-27-218(1), or 13-27-219(1), the legislative services division staff shall review the text and ballot statements for clarity, consistency, and conformity with the most recent edition of the bill drafting manual furnished by the legislative services division, the requirements of this part, and any other factors that the staff considers when drafting proposed legislation.
Terms Used In Montana Code 13-27-225
- Ballot: means a paper ballot counted manually or a paper ballot counted by a machine, such as an optical scan system or other technology that automatically tabulates votes cast by processing the paper ballots. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Ballot statements: means a statement of purpose and implication and a yes and no statement. See Montana Code 13-27-110
- Constitutional convention initiative: means a statewide initiative to submit to the qualified electors the question of whether there must be an unlimited convention to amend the Montana constitution as authorized in Article XIV, section 2, of the Montana constitution. See Montana Code 13-27-110
- Constitutional initiative: means a statewide initiative to enact constitutional law as authorized in Article XIV, section 9, of the Montana constitution. See Montana Code 13-27-110
- Person: means an individual, corporation, association, firm, partnership, cooperative, committee, including a political committee, club, union, or other organization or group of individuals or a candidate as defined in subsection (8). See Montana Code 13-1-101
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- Statutory initiative: means an initiative to enact statutory law as authorized in Article III, section 4, of the Montana constitution. See Montana Code 13-27-110
- Statutory referendum: means a legislative act to enact statutory law that is referred by petition to the qualified electors for approval or rejection as authorized in Article III, section 5, of the Montana constitution. See Montana Code 13-27-110
- Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203
(2)(a) The legislative services division staff shall recommend in writing to the proponent revisions to the text and revisions to the ballot statements to make them consistent with any recommendations for change to the text and the requirements of this part or state that no revisions are recommended.
(b)The proponent shall consider the recommendations and respond in writing to the legislative services division, accepting, rejecting, or modifying each of the recommended revisions. If revisions are not recommended, a response is not required.
(3)The legislative services division shall furnish a copy of the correspondence provided for in subsection (2) to the secretary of state, who shall make a copy of the correspondence available to any person on request.