Index: /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/classes/qmu.m
===================================================================
--- /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/classes/qmu.m	(revision 24161)
+++ /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/classes/qmu.m	(revision 24162)
@@ -65,5 +65,5 @@
 			end
 			if ~isempty(md.qmu.partition),
-				if numel(md.qmu.partition)~=md.mesh.numberofvertices & numel(md.qmu.partition)~=md.mesh.numberofelements,
+				if (numel(md.qmu.partition)~=md.mesh.numberofvertices & numel(md.qmu.partition)~=md.mesh.numberofelements) | size(md.qmu.partition,2)~=1,
 					md = checkmessage(md,['user supplied partition for qmu analysis should have size md.mesh.numberofvertices x 1 or md.mesh.numberofelements x 1']);
 				end
Index: /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/classes/qmu.py
===================================================================
--- /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/classes/qmu.py	(revision 24161)
+++ /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/classes/qmu.py	(revision 24162)
@@ -153,5 +153,5 @@
 		
 		if np.size(md.qmu.partition) > 0:
-			if np.size(md.qmu.partition)!=md.mesh.numberofvertices and np.size(md.qmu.partition) != md.mesh.numberofelements:
+			if (np.size(md.qmu.partition)!=md.mesh.numberofvertices and np.size(md.qmu.partition) != md.mesh.numberofelements) or np.size(md.qmu.partition,1) != 1:
 				md.checkmessage("user supplied partition for qmu analysis should have size (md.mesh.numberofvertices x 1) or (md.mesh.numberofelements x 1)")
 			if not min(md.qmu.partition.flatten())==0: