How Montanans voted, precinct by precinct
Where the Legislature stands on election changes
As of the Legislature’s transmittal break, a host of proposed changes to election administration law have advanced. Some aim to tweak the existing system, while others target deeper change.
Where Montana’s special election committee stands
The Joint Select Committee on Election Security has spent months exploring the nuances of Montana’s election system. That work has crystallized in three proposals targeting absentee voter list maintenance and voting machine procedures, all of which won bipartisan support in the Senate.
Explaining the why and the where of Montana’s new legislative districts
Looking back on six years as COPP
Secretary of State appeals rulings that struck down new election laws
Statewide Race Results
Now that the election is over, the real work begins.
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Election News
Election skepticism and the search for a smoking gun
From “cast vote records” to nonprofit election grant documents, the recent spate of open records requests at county election offices in Montana mirrors a nationwide surge propelled in part by prominent pro-Trump critics of the 2020 election.
How Montana’s new election laws failed legal muster
A trio of 2021 election administration laws were declared unconstitutional last week. Judge Michael Moses’ order has a lot to say about where the laws came from, and why he found them illegal.
Judge: New voter laws “unconstitutional” and permanently enjoined
A district court judge in Billings Friday permanently struck down three election administration laws in Montana, declaring that eliminating Election Day voter registration, implementing new voter identification requirements and barring paid ballot collection were unconstitutional.
Election-day voter registration back on as Montana Supreme Court reverses preliminary ruling
In a Wednesday opinion, four Montana Supreme Court justices upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking 2021 laws that ended Election Day voter registration and introduced new voter ID requirements.
Super PAC faces new allegations in MontanaConvention of States
The Convention of States Political Fund was already found in violation of Montana campaign finance law this year. Now it faces new allegations about dark money ties, even as it fights the state’s top political enforcer in federal court.
Montana’s nine-day election laws trial concludes
A nine-day trial over Montana’s new election laws concluded in Billings Thursday. In the proceeding’s final days, arguments pivoted to the laws’ origins, and finally shed light on how the case ties to Montana’s election skepticism movement.
Shared State Podcast
Shared State: The politics of death and dying
In 2009, Montana was caught up in a heated national debate over whether terminally ill patients could expedite their deaths by taking lethal, physician-prescribed medication. More than a decade later, the state is still mired in disagreement about medical aid in dying, in part because courts and elected lawmakers have sidestepped the political hot-potato. Meanwhile,…
Shared State: Colstrip’s next chapter
Shared State: Bozeman is in a housing death spiral. Can local politics fix anything?
Shared State: Popularity’s slippery slope
More Shared State

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MORE ELECTIONS COVERAGE
Voting rights trial hits halfway mark
Montana is now five days into a 10-day trial determining the fate of three new election administration laws. What’s happened so far?
What’s at stake as new election laws go to trial
Over the next 10 days, attorneys on either side of Montana’s election administration lawsuit will explore how three challenged laws impact voters, election officials and voter confidence. Here’s a look at the arguments they laid out on day one.
Montana SOS joins pushback against presidential voter access order
Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen recently joined an effort to challenge a 2021 executive order from President Biden on voter access, one that undercut several new state laws her office is slated to defend next week.