Montana court returns Butte data center measure to ballot

Court reverses lower ruling

The Montana Supreme Court has allowed a proposed Butte-Silver Bow County ballot initiative concerning data center development to return to the ballot. The court overturned a lower court ruling that had kept the measure from going before voters.

The decision resolves the initiative’s immediate ballot status. It does not itself approve or reject a data center project, and it does not enact the proposed citizen-approval requirement. Instead, it allows voters to consider whether that requirement should become local policy.

What the initiative would do

The proposed initiative would require citizen approval for data center development in Butte-Silver Bow County. Its central question is whether residents should have a direct vote before such development can proceed.

The measure concerns the local approval process for data centers rather than a candidate contest. A vote for the initiative would support adding the citizen-approval requirement, while a vote against it would leave that proposed requirement out of local policy.

What happens next

With the lower court ruling overturned, election officials can move forward with placing the initiative before county voters. The next steps involve the local ballot process and the presentation of the measure to voters.

The Supreme Court’s action determines that the proposal may be considered at the ballot box. The policy decision—whether data center development should require citizen approval—belongs to Butte-Silver Bow County voters through the initiative process.