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May 29, 2025
Because she doesn’t check in much on Facebook, Rep. Sherry Essmann, R-Billings, was unaware a Missouri-based group had targeted her opposition to amending Montana’s Constitution in the legislative session that ended in April.
The amendment? Changing the word “any” to “only” when specifying who in Montana gets to vote. The state Constitution says that “any citizen of the United States 18 years of age or older who meets the registration and residence requirements provided by law is a qualified elector” unless imprisoned or, by court determination, of unsound mind.
Essmann told Montana Free Press she voted against the bill because the Constitution works by clearly stating that only U.S. citizens of voting age can cast ballots. She’s cautious about making changes to the state’s foundational laws and principles. Essmann voted against several attempts during the 2025 legislative session by legislators to change the Constitution. There were at least eight bills to amend the state Constitution.
The changes sought in Senate Bill 185, the “any” to “only” bill, didn’t seem worth the cost of putting the issue to voters, Essmann said. The state Constitution sets a high bar for lawmakers attempting to change the Constitution. Approval to send an amendment to voters requires a two-third majority of the Legislature.
In a House legislative committee, proponents of the bill insisted the change from any to only was significant. Where the present law says citizens of the United States ages 18 and older qualify to vote in Montana, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton, testified in the House State Administration Committee in March that “the ‘only’ language creates a ceiling for eligibility, and so that only citizens can vote and nobody else.”
The senator cited the example of a local government election in Dodson as evidence that non-citizens have voted in Montana elections. In that case, two Philippine citizens residing in Dodson on work visas voted in a race for mayor.
A representative for Americans for Citizen Voting, the group now targeting Essmann with Facebook ads, testified on March 21 that eight states had approved the amendment sought by the group. Jack Tomczak, national field director, said the change was necessary to protect state and local elections.
Previous coverage of the 2021 election by Montana Free Press indicates the present law works. The workers from the Philippines were charged with misdemeanor deceptive election practices, to which they eventually agreed to plead no contest. Both were out of the country when the court ruled. Each forfeited a bond of $585. When voting, the two indicated they were U.S. citizens, not in Montana on work visas. Their votes were tossed out.
The ads targeting Essmann say she was the “only Republican legislator to have ever voted against citizen only voting.”
The vote tally on SB 185 shows that it was shy of the required two-thirds majority. Manzella’s bill passed the Senate with the help of a couple Democrats, but in the House the bill didn’t clear the bar and wouldn’t have with Essmann’s support because she wasn’t the only opponent as minority Democrats also voted against the bill.
In a letter sent directly to anyone inquiring about SB 185, Essmann explains that concerns about election security are legitimate and that the state Constitution already limits voting to U.S. citizens of legal age.
“Let’s be clear: non-citizen voting is a problem — but we already have the Constitution on our side. It’s time we enforced it, not repackaged it for political points,” Essmann wrote.
Time to pony up
Montana’s governor will have to pay the legal bills of the Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthworks, under a state Supreme Court ruling issued May 29.
The two environmental groups successfully sued Gov. Greg Gianforte for the communications between the executive branch and Hecla Mining, a hard rock mining company with years of Montana history. Previously, that state issued a “bad actor” designation to Hecla CEO Phillips S. Baker, Jr., for his role with another company, Pegasus Gold, which failed to clean up the Zortman Mine, leaving the work to the state. The state has since asked that its bad actor lawsuit against Baker and Hecla be dismissed, clearing the way for consideration of mining projects in Lincoln and Sanders counties.
A district court in 2023 ordered the governor to produce the record, despite Gianforte’s claim of an executive communications privilege. The privilege issue is still fresh. On May 16 Gianforte vetoed House Bill 271, which would have limited the governor’s ability to assert executive privilege to keep information confidential.
Not producing the records violated the public “right-to-now” provision in the Montana Constitution, the court said in the MEIC and Earthworks case.
But the lower court denied MEIC and Earthworks’ recovery of attorney’s fees. Writing the prevailing opinion of the state Supreme Court on May 29, Justice Laurie McKinnon noted that anyone litigating for the disclosure of public records improperly withheld is doing a service by defending the public’s right to know. That service deserves compensation, the court concluded. Not awarding attorney’s fees would have a chilling effect on the public suing to have its rights upheld.
“This is a big win for government transparency,” said Bonnie Gestring, of Earthworks, in a press release May 29. “Montanans have a constitutional right to review government documents, but this right becomes meaningless if citizens are expected to shoulder the cost of litigation when the government stonewalls a legitimate Right-to-Know request.”
The two groups haven’t calculated their legal fees yet.
