The 467,000 postcards sent to Montana households with pictures of Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and President Donald Trump cost $196,829 to produce and mail, according to the Montana Department of Administration.
When MTFP wrote an initial story about the mailers last week, the Secretary of State’s office declined to share the number printed and their cost. DOA provided that information on Friday after MTFP submitted a formal public records request.
The blue postcard features a photo of Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and President Donald Trump with a red banner featuring white text that reads “ONLY CITIZENS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO VOTE.” The rest of the postcard introduces an election security program Montana will “soon implement” designed to verify voters’ immigration status and ensure only citizens vote in U.S. elections. A footer at the bottom reads, “under Secretary Jacobsen’s leadership, non-citizen voting will not be tolerated.”
Secretary of State spokesperson Richie Melby said last week that the mailer was intended to celebrate the new tool offered through a federal partnership called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, which recently flagged 23 Montana voters as potential non-citizens. The Secretary of State’s Office tallied 784,949 registered voters in Montana as of Wednesday evening, meaning those flagged make up about 0.003% of registered voters.
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About that political postcard you got from the Secretary of State
A mass-mailed postcard sent by Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen embodies conservative Republicans’ crusade to root out illegal voters in Montana’s upcoming midterm election. But election experts say that non-citizen voting isn’t an active problem in Montana, and a Democrat said the postcard is political fearmongering with an unclear source of funding.
Rep. Kelly Kortum, D-Bozeman, said in a Wednesday interview that he saw Jacobsen’s mailers as fearmongering about a nonissue in order to bolster her political profile for a future run for office.
On Jan. 7, Harlowton resident Susan Beley filed a complaint with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices over Jacobsen allegedly using state funds to support false claims about non-citizen voting. Commissioner Chris Gallus said on Friday that he would not be launching an investigation as a result of the complaint because it did not provide a detailed description of an alleged violation of state law.
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