Montana
Ballot Security
What Politicians Say
The state added a slew of new restrictions to elections law over the last two years, notably ending the state’s longtime practice of allowing voters to register on Election Day.
Although the 2021 law moved the deadline to noon the day before the election, it would mean some voters would have to make two trips that could be a long drive in a state like Montana.
It also means voters who learn on Election Day that they were not registered as they thought they were or who were improperly removed from the rolls would have to cast a provisional ballot. Nationally, as many as 3 in 10 provisional ballots are not counted.
Around 1% to 2% of Montanans registered on Election Day since the state began the practice in 2006, and it was especially popular among the state’s bigger cities and areas with a high Native American population.
Supporters said the change would allow local elections administrators to focus on voting and counting ballots on Election Day.
The state Democratic Party and groups representing Native Americans and young voters sued, but in May of 2022 the state Supreme Court allowed the laws to go into effect while the lawsuits move forward.
Ease of Voting
Another 2021 law tightened the state’s voter ID rules.
Previously, voters could use a voter registration card, utility bill, bank statement or other piece of official mail to prove their name and address when voting.
The new law set strict standards for photo ID, requiring either a driver’s license or other photo ID issued by the state or an Indian tribe, a US passport or a Montana concealed carry gun permit.
Student IDs are only accepted with a second piece of ID that shows the voter’s address.
Other laws limit the governor’s power to change election laws during an emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic, require partisan poll watchers at mail-ballot drop boxes and allow reduced hours at smaller polling places.
Ballot Security
Other recent laws require voter rolls be updated every year instead of every other year and bar paid workers from collecting mail-in ballots.
How Politicians Responded to the 2020 Election
In his previous position as a member of the US House of Representatives, Gianforte supported a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to intervene in the election.
His successor in the House, Representative Matt Rosendale, objected to Biden electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Montana’s then-attorney general, Tim Fox, also signed onto the Texas lawsuit.
MyPillow Inc Chief Executive Officer Mike Lindell, a prominent elections conspiracy theorist, met with staffers of current Attorney General Austin Knudsen in late 2021 to try to persuade the office to sign onto a new lawsuit seeking to reinstall Donald Trump as president.
US Senator Steve Daines signed a joint statement with US Senator Ted Cruz and others citing “unprecedented allegations” of voter fraud and initially planned to object to electors on Jan. 6, but changed his mind after the attacks on the Capitol.