Two Missoula city government overhaul ballot measures, a state-mandated measure that allows residents to scrutinize city and county government and recommend reforms, lost initial vote tallies Tuesday night.
According to the Missoula County Election Center, the first vote showed 55% opposed to the city government overhaul and 32% in favor. County voters showed a similar result, 55% opposed to 31% in favor.
Of the ballots counted so far, roughly 10-12 percent of voters have decided not to make a decision on the local government review and returned their ballots blank.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday night, more than 14,000 city residents and a total of 24,000 county residents had voted.
Local government review votes are required by state law every 10 years.
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If approved, it would kick off a two-year process in which residents would form a review committee to look into local government practices and return recommendations to residents to be voted on in the next election.
The local government investigation would establish a seven-member committee and a budget of $200,000 to investigate each government.
The previous local government review referendum, held in 2014, also ended in failure.
Griffin Smith is a local government reporter for The Missoulian.
