Voting

A Gallatin County election official says a large number of voters dropping off absentee ballots in person on Election Day is partly why it took longer to count ballots.

Just over half of registered absentee voters in Montana have returned their ballots for the midterm election as of noon Monday.

It’s now too late for Montanans to mail in absentee ballots for the Nov. 8 midterm election. To ensure ballots get counted on time, voters should drop them off at their local county elections office.

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

A record number of people are registered to vote in Montana, and thousands have already cast their ballot.

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 ruling comes amid multi-pronged election administration litigation and also blocks new voter ID requirements adopted by the 2021 Montana Legislature.

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 trial is underway in Yellowstone County over three new Montana election laws. Plaintiffs focused their first arguments on barriers to voting in Indian Country.