Montana legislators last week rejected three separate calls for special legislative sessions proposed for various policy ideas.
The Montana State Capitol in Helena, Mont.
The proposals came in rapid-fire sequence in early May from Republican lawmakers — including one from Republican Speaker of the House Matt Regier — and distinctly dealt in voter registration, immigration laws, as well as marijuana tax revenues and judicial elections.
A majority of the 150-member Legislature is required to trigger a special session in any case. The closest any of the three polls came to the 76-vote threshold was 59 votes to approve, and the proponents already had thin margins to work with; the highest response any poll saw was 113 votes.
Republicans initiated all three polls, with mixed results from their caucus; each poll got more “approve” than “reject” votes, but none reached the tally needed to reconvene the Legislature.
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Democrats uniformly voted against the special sessions or did not return their ballots, which were counted as “no” votes.
Reps. Jane Gillette, R-Bozeman, and Caleb Hinkle, R-Belgrade, proposed a special session to establish partisan judicial elections, a proposal that appeared in four bills during the 2023 Legislature and likewise failed to pass. The poll failed on a total 50-59 vote.
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Speaker of the House Rep. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, chairs the Montana House of Representatives on April 20, 2023, in the Montana state Capitol.