New voting rules in play as primary election begins

This story was revised after publication to reflect a May 11 court order allowing longstanding voter registration deadlines to continue.

As school election ballots started coming back to the Yellowstone County Elections Office on Tuesday, it was clear that voters are still getting the hang of Montana’s new voting laws — especially that mail voters must now write their birth year on their ballot’s return envelope.

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Late voter registration, the kind that has sometimes contributed to long lines of Montanans signing up to vote hours after polls have officially closed, will continue at least through the June 2 primary election under a court order issued after ballots and voting guidelines have been mailed for Montana’s primary election. The order preserves new voter ID requirements.

by Tom Lutey 05.11.202605.28.2026

Yellowstone County Elections Administrator Dayna Causby said her office sent more than 1,500 notifications to voters explaining that either their return envelopes were either missing a signature or, more often, their birth year in the envelope’s four pre-printed orange squares below the signature line. The latter was first required of Montana voters in 2025 municipal elections, and next in 2026 school elections, which wrapped up Tuesday night. 

Absentee ballots for the primary election are due to be mailed to electors on the absentee list Friday. Voters’ learning curve, judging by Causby’s observations, is still pretty steep.

“I have people who voted last fall who still forgot their birth year. I have an election worker in my office who didn’t include her birth year,” Causby said. Of her office’s 1,531 potentially rejected ballots, roughly 216 were resolved before her office started counting school election ballots late Tuesday. Voters had until 5 p.m. Wednesday to clear up any problems so their votes would count.

With the start of primary election voting this week, county election administrators told Montana Free Press, there are new requirements that voters will need to adjust to. People voting in person will need to provide an officially recognized form of ID — Montana driver’s license, Montana ID card, military ID, tribal ID, passport, concealed carry permit, or a student ID issued by a Montana University System school or a member school of the National Collegiate Athletic Association — to receive a ballot. A voter can also use a current utility bill, or bank statement or government document showing a name and current address, combined with a photo ID that includes the voter’s name.  

In prior elections, any photo ID was sufficient.

Multiple voting rights groups have sued Montana’s secretary of state to overturn new voter ID and registration laws. A court order issued May 11 blocked any change to Montana voter registration deadlines, meaning voters can still register until noon the Monday before Election Day and on Election Day as long as they are in line to register before polls close at 8 p.m.

The birth-year requirement was the first new law to roll out because municipal and school elections are conducted exclusively by mail, meaning no accommodation was necessary for late in-person registration.