Nonpartisan city elections overwhelmingly approved

In the last 120 years, Havre City Council has had Republican, Democratic, Progressive and Socialist members.

But no more.

Voters Tuesday voted 1,938 to 577 to hold nonpartisan elections in the future.

That means the people elected in Tuesday's elections will be the last ones to have party labels listed next to their names on the ballot.

City Councilman Andrew Brekke supported the proposal. He said the issues that come before City Council are not partisan and therefore candidates should not be partisan.

It will be easier to attract candidates, he said, if they don't have a party attached to their name.

There was no organized opposition, just some random comments from Democrats that Republicans favored nonpartisan elections because they have had a hard time attracting candidates and winning elections in the Democratic city.

(Senior journalist Tim Leeds contributed to this report.)