A Helena judge has ordered Montana elections’ officials to accept signatures from inactive voters who signed citizen ballot initiatives earlier this year. That’s in response to a lawsuit against the Montana Secretary of State for instructing officials to reject those signatures.
Two groups behind constitutional ballot proposals to protect abortion access and amend election law sued the state over a late change in procedure. They argued in court that Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen reversed decades of precedent when she issued her instructions earlier this month.
Two weeks after counties started verifying signatures for the ballot measures, Jacobsen told them to reject inactive voters, saying they are not qualified electors and ineligible to sign petitions. The state office then updated software all counties use to automatically reject inactive voters from ballot proposals.
Secretary of State attorney Clay Leland said it was cut and dry.
“A petition may only be signed by a qualified elector of the state of Montana. Period,” said Leland.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys didn’t dispute that. They argued that the state inaccurately conflated being a qualified elector with active voter status. They pointed to the state’s legal definition of a qualified elector that does not reference a voter's active status.
The state argued against the judge intervening in the signature counting process, saying the three ballot measures in question are likely to qualify for the ballot regardless of this issue.
Lewis and Clark District Court Judge Mike Menahan pushed back, saying that’s irrelevant and that he’s solely concerned with “the rights of the people who signed the petition, the right of the voter.”
The court’s order allows county officials to continue verifying signatures to meet a Friday deadline. It also orders the Secretary of State’s office to update its software and count inactive voters.
The order is temporary. Another hearing next Friday will determine what comes next.
