State school superintendent candidate Elaine Sollie Herman said she's stopped selling raffle tickets for her El Camino vehicle after learning that Internet raffle sales are illegal.

Since last month, Herman, a Republican from Helena, was selling raffle tickets for $30 apiece for a chance to win her green 1975 El Camino with a V-8 engine. She said the vehicle, which she ordered directly from the factory, had only 30,000 miles on it.

She had hoped to sell up to 10,000 tickets, which would have yielded $300,000 for her campaign. If no more than 500 tickets were sold, she said the winner would receive half the proceeds.

Herman said she stopped ticket sales on Monday after learning from state Gambling Control Division Administrator Gene Huntington that selling raffle tickets over the Internet was illegal.

"It was immediately upon receiving that information that I halted Internet sales of raffle tickets, pending further clarification of the law," she said in a press release.

If an investigation determines that raffle tickets are not allowed in her campaign, Herman said, "any sales that already occurred over the Internet will be considered null and void and any revenue will be refunded to the buyers."

"I have and always will operate my campaign with the utmost integrity and within the confines of Montana state law," Herman said in a press release.

She could not be reached Wednesday to say how many raffle tickets she had sold so far and how many of them were sold over the Internet.

In the first story about Herman's campaign raffle that ran June 18, Huntington had told the Associated Press that the law is clear that all Internet gambling, even raffles, is illegal.

Herman said then she believed the raffle was legal.

"I really did try to do my homework on it," she told AP in June. "To the best of my knowledge, I am not doing anything wrong."

Earlier this week, Herman said when she first sought a Justice Department raffle permit, she was not told that the Internet sales of ticket was illegal. If she had received that information then, Herman said she never would have sold the tickets over the Internet.

Huntington said Wednesday that raffles are licensed by counties, but the state Justice Department cannot issue raffle permits.

Herman is running against Democrat Denise Juneau and Libertarian Donald Eisenmenger for state superintendent of public instruction.

Montana Democratic Party spokesman Kevin O'Brien said last month that Herman was breaking the law, which allows only charitable groups to raffle items worth more than $5,000. He questioned whether a campaign qualifies as a charity.

Herman said her car's trade-in value was $4,725, but that it's worth $10,500.

"She says it's only worth $4,700," O'Brien said. "When it's convenient one way, to increase sales, she wants the car to be worth $10,500, but when she's trying to comply with the law, she dropped the price of it to below five grand."