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Renewable Energy Group Can Collect Ballot Signatures Remotely, State Says

Jim Hammer
/
Flickr
A group backing a Montana voter initiative says it’s been given the green light to collect signatures remotely in order to qualify its issue for the November ballot. ";

A group backing a Montana voter initiative says it’s been given the green light to collect signatures remotely in order to qualify its issue for the November ballot. It’s the first group to find a workaround during social distancing guidelines. 

The Montana Secretary of State this month granted permission for one renewable energy ballot initiative to collect signatures remotely.

If passed, initiative 187 would transition the state to 80 percent renewable energy by 2034.

Russ Doty with the group MTCares says signature gathering stalled in March due to social distancing measures.

“We lost being able to collect signatures at major events and we also lost the ability to collect signatures because people weren’t getting together in large groups, so we gotta do something different and this will help," Doty said.  

The Secretary of State Office’s May 7 decision allows voters to download forms online, fill out and sign them and then mail them directly to county election offices.

Another ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use recently lost its bid to use software called DocuSign to collect electronic signatures.

A Missoula district court ruled in late April that the organizers failed to demonstrate this mode of collecting signatures is necessary. The court further expressed doubt about the security of collecting those electronic signatures.

MTCares says it’s collected a little more than 40 percent of the roughly 25,500 signatures it needs by June to qualify for the ballot.

The Secretary of State’s Office did not respond to YPR’s request for comment by the deadline for this story.

Kayla writes about energy policy, the oil and gas industry and new electricity developments.