Term Limits

Background on Term Limits in Montana:

In 1992, Montanans passed a constitutional initiative (CI-64) establishing limits on how long statewide elected executive officers, state legislators, and members of Congress* can hold office.

 *In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down term limits on congressional terms, saying that states do not have the constitutional authority to regulate the tenure of federal legislators.

The effect of CI-64 was to prohibit the following public officials from seeking re-election if they have already held the office for 8 years in any 16-year period:

• Please note that pursuant to passage of Senate Bill 311 in 2011 and based on the 2012 Attorney General opinion at 54-4, “a candidate may file for office if, at the time the candidate begins to serve in that office, he or she will have had an 8-year break in service over a 16-year period of time.”
• For example, an individual who served from 1999 to 2007 would no longer be prohibited by term limits from filing for the same office in 2014, since as of the time the individual begins to serve in 2015, there will have been a 8-year break in service (from January 2007- January 2015).

An official can be re-elected by write-in vote, even after serving 8 years in a 16-year period.