The Montana Secretary of State stopped short of agreeing to certify three hotly contested ballot issues but again said it would comply with court requirements to count the signatures submitted toward the qualification of the measures.
Staff lawyers for Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen were absent for Friday’s hearing, the latest in a revolving series of legal hurdles for the ballot issues, despite subpoenas issued for their testimony.
The issues include an effort to add the explicit right to access a pre-viability abortion to the state’s Constitution, as well as two issues that would change how primary elections work. The measures are generally opposed by Republicans in Montana, as the state GOP’s platform calls for a full abortion ban with no exceptions and the party this month adopted an official stance opposing ranked-choice voting.
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Lawyers for the state Attorney General’s Office, who represent the Secretary of State in the legal proceedings in Lewis and Clark County District Court, agreed to a preliminary injunction that’s much the same as a temporary restraining order issued last week by Helena Judge Mike Menahan.
The two groups behind the ballot measures are Montanans Security Reproductive Rights and Montanans for Election Reform. They argued that a July 2 announcement from Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen that statewide election software had been modified to automatically exclude signatures of registered but inactive voters was an illegal tactic to prevent thousands of signatories from having their voices heard.
To qualify a citizen-led constitutional initiative for the ballot, groups were required to collect just over 60,000 signatures across 40 legislative districts in Montana, a threshold both organizations previously said they met for their initiatives. Since the July 2 change, county elections officers have not been counting inactive voters and the county-level officials originally had until July 19 to count all petition signatures.
The terms of the temporary restraining order Menahan issued last week required the Secretary of State to accept the signatures of inactive voters. But neither last week’s order nor Friday’s goes as far as requiring the secretary to certify the ballot measures, though both groups have submitted far more signatures than are necessary to qualify. Menahan said Friday such an action would be beyond his purview in the case.
Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan hear arguments during a temporary restraining order hearing in a suit against the Montana secretary of state brought by Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights and Montanans for Election Reform over ballot initiative signature exclusions on July 16 in the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse.
“While we are pleased that the Secretary of State has agreed to follow the law regarding this issue, we fully anticipate that they will continue to play political games with the petition process in their attempt to block this initiative and silence Montana voters,” Akilah Deernose, executive director of ACLU of Montana and spokesperson for MSRR, said in a press release. “Montanans can be sure that we will remain vigilant and continue to fight for the rights of Montanans to participate in their democracy and make their voices heard.”
A separate challenge to the election-focused ballot issues was recently filed in Lake County, and MSRR attorney Raph Graybill, who is also the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor this year, on Friday referenced several concerns that have arisen from that case.
The Lake County lawsuit was brought by Republicans for Freedom, along with GOP Speaker of the House Matt Regier, Republican legislative candidates Lukas Schubert and Tracy Sharp and Lake County Republican Central Committee member Larry Ashcraft.
Lake County Judge Molly Owen issued a temporary restraining order blocking the progression of the two election measures after Jacobsen agreed to the terms, but later vacated that order upon learning of the previously filed Lewis and Clark County case.
Secretary of State Attorneys Austin James and Clay Leland were involved in the Lake County case, but according to court filings from MSRR and MER the two lawyers did not disclose that case in the Helena courtroom when they gave testimony July 16, nor did they inform MER of the challenge to the proposed ballot measures as required by law.
In court Friday, Graybill said attempts to serve a subpoena on James and Leland to appear in court were unsuccessful. A process server could not locate the men, Graybill said, and the subpoenas were not accepted at the Secretary of State’s Office in the Capitol.
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