Thousands of signatures for constitutional initiatives are in legal limbo after Montana’s top election official last week abruptly changed the standard for determining which voters are eligible to sign a ballot petition.
The move to not permit signatures from voters listed as “inactive” comes as county election administrators around Montana are vetting stacks of signed petitions submitted by the sponsors of three distinct proposals that could appear on the November ballot: CI-126 and CI-127, which deal with statewide election reform, and CI-128, which would enshrine abortion rights in the Montana Constitution.
The groups behind those proposals, Montanans for Election Reform and Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights (MSRR), challenged the change Wednesday in a lawsuit against Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen filed in a state district court in Helena.
“To exercise their right to propose a constitutional amendment, plaintiffs are required to submit 60,359 verified signatures. But by effectively forcing county election administrators to reject signatures from voters marked ‘inactive,’ the Secretary has impeded Plaintiffs’ ability to reach that threshold, threatening their right to place CI-126, CI-127, and CI-128 on the ballot in November, causing injury and harm,” attorneys for the plaintiff groups wrote in the filing. “For these reasons, the inactive voter guidance violates Montanans’ right to propose constitutional amendments by initiative.”
In their complaint, the groups asked the court to bar Jacobsen from enforcing the new interpretation and direct her office to immediately restore the signatures already rejected from inactive voters.
Asked for comment on the lawsuit, spokesperson Richie Melby told Montana Free Press Wednesday that the Secretary of State’s Office had not received a complaint and “is still following the provisions of Montana law and the Constitution.”
According to emails from late June and early July obtained by MSRR through a public records request filed in Missoula County, staffers from Jacobsen’s office said local officials should not accept signatures from “inactive” voters — Montanans who are still legally registered but have not voted in a recent federal general election or have not responded to mailings from their county to update their registration information. In order to vote, individuals on the inactive list must update their registration status with their county’s elections office.
The recent interpretation reversed the state’s longstanding policy of counting inactive voters as “qualified electors” who are allowed to sign statewide ballot petitions.
“It looks like we are unable to accept signatures from inactive voters,” said Glacier County Election Administrator Crystal Cole in an email on June 28 to other local administrators, noting that officials “were told we could” count the signatures of all registered voters during an October meeting about the petition process. “Hope this isn’t a bombshell.”
The change has taken some county administrators by surprise, upending the preexisting practice of accepting signatures from inactive voters during the verification process.
“Historically, we have accepted inactive voters in the past,” said Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder Eric Semerad in an interview on Tuesday with MTFP.
The reversal also comes just weeks ahead of a July 19 deadline by which local election officials must verify all the signatures submitted within their counties. Lewis and Clark County Election Division Supervisor Connor Fitzpatrick said his office is hopeful litigation over the issue will be resolved quickly to avoid impacting preparations for the November ballot.
“I just hope that a ruling is made clearly and quickly so that when we go to start doing elections prep here towards the middle to the end of August, we know what’s going to be on the ballot,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that the printing and proofing of ballots and distribution of voter information pamphlets are scheduled to begin well ahead of the election.
Jacobsen’s office enacted the change by updating the state’s ElectMT system on July 2. The system now automatically rejects submitted signatures from voters flagged as inactive.
