Montana Secretary of State

After a year of unsuccessful requests, election critics in the Montana Legislature will get a special committee focused on election security.

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s allegations against recent courtroom rivals was dismissed as “frivolous.”

A pamphlet sent to voters includes information based on laws passed last year by Republicans. But a district court judge struck down the laws late last month.

The laws would have ended Election Day voter registration, changed voter ID requirements, and banned paid ballot collection. They are now permanently blocked from going into effect.

The office says it has spent $1.4 million dollars on lawsuits — $1.3 million dollars more than it had budgeted to defend controversial election laws passed in the 2021 session.

The future of three new Montana election laws is in the hands of a state judge. Attorneys recently concluded nine days of arguing over the laws' possible benefits and harms.

In the trial’s final days, courtroom debate turned to the origins of the state’s three new voting laws and the case’s ties to broader conspiracies about voter fraud.

A proposed constitutional initiative that would have capped property taxes for residential owners has not garnered the signatures needed to appear on the November ballot, according to unofficial results from the Montana Secretary of State’s office.

Montana’s top political watchdog made an impassioned plea on Wednesday for state officials to combat election misinformation and hostility.

The justices have overturned a district court injunction blocking new voting laws.