Montana: State Republicans vote for closed primaries, for runoff elections | Billings Gazette

Irked at what they believe is Democrats interfering in their primary elections, state Republican Party delegates on Saturday called for closing their primaries and allowing only registered Republicans to vote in them. Delegates also voted to support a second measure calling for quick runoff elections in general elections between the two candidates with the most votes. Runoffs would take place if no one in the general election won the majority of the votes. Neither resolution will take effect unless the Legislature passes laws to implement them or a court orders them. They simply reflect the viewpoints of a majority of the 207 convention Republican delegates present. The resolution for a closed Republican primary sparked a debate.

Montana: State to open voting offices on reservations | Associated Press

Montana will open satellite voting offices on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap reservations in October as part of a settlement in a federal voting-rights lawsuit. The offices will be open twice week for late registration and for voters to cast absentee ballots for the Nov. 4 general elections. Last year, 12 Indian plaintiffs sued Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and elections officials in Blaine, Rosebud and Big Horn counties. They argued they had to drive long distances to county courthouses — in some instances, a more than 100 miles roundtrip — to register late and vote early in elections.

Montana: Indian voting lawsuit settled | Great Falls Tribune

Indian plaintiffs who sued in federal court to force the Montana secretary of state and three rural counties to open satellite voting offices on remote reservations have settled the lawsuit out of court. Under the agreement, the three counties agree to open satellite voting locations on three reservations and pay plaintiffs’ attorney fees in the amount of $75,000. In a separate agreement, the state agrees to pay an additional $25,000 in attorney fees, according to Secretary of State Linda McCulloch. “I pledged to help assist the tribes and the counties to make this all work,” McCulloch said.

Montana: Gallatin County voters weigh in on late voter registration | NBC

The day before the election marks the end of late voter registration, giving election officials a brief break before same day registration and voting begins early Tuesday. However, a referendum on the ballot this November could push late registration back. Legislative referendum 126 would end late voter registration on the Friday before election day and eliminate election-day registration all together. We spoke to Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder Charlotte Mills on how the move might impact her office.

Montana: Missoula commissioners hear critics of appointed elections administrator | The Missoulian

If you oversee voting – the most basic right in a democracy – you should be directly accountable to voters. So said many members of the public who spoke Wednesday at a Missoula Board of County Commissioners hearing on the creation of an appointed elections administrator. Currently, election administration is among the responsibilities of the clerk and recorder – who is elected by voters – and the proposal to create a position beholden to county officials instead wasn’t popular among audience members. “It’s really vital that the person who safeguards our voting process is directly responsible to the voters,” said Daniel Viehland of the Montana Public Interest Research Group, or MontPIRG. Currently, the clerk and recorder is elected and oversees elections, treasurer duties, motor vehicles and document recording. The proposal under consideration would move election duties into the job of a full-time administrator who would be appointed rather than elected and would report to the chief administrative officer; the clerk and recorder would remain elected and continue to oversee the other functions.

Montana: Judge: Indian voting case can proceed | Associated Press

A voting rights lawsuit from members of three American Indian tribes in Montana will go forward after a federal judge rejected attempts by state and county officials to dismiss the case. Members of the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap tribes want county officials to set up satellite voting offices to make up for the long distances they must travel to reach courthouses for early voting or late registration. Judge Donald Molloy said in a Wednesday order that the plaintiffs' claims of discrimination are plausible enough that the case should proceed. The 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibited state-sanctioned discrimination against minorities. Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and officials from Blaine, Rosebud and Big Horn counties were named as defendants in the lawsuit, which has been pending since before the 2012 election.

Montana: Court blocks ‘top-two’ primary referendum from appearing on 2014 ballot | Billings Gazette

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the state from placing on the November ballot a legislative referendum to change how the state’s primary elections work. The Republican majorities in the House and Senate in 2013 put Legislative Referendum 127 on the ballot. Some unions and another group went directly to the Supreme Court to ask that it be stripped from the ballot on legal grounds. In a 6-1 decision, the court majority ruled that the title of the referendum “does not comply with the plain meaning of the Legislature’s 100-word limit” in state law.

Montana: Attorney submits initiative to fill Senate vacancies by special election | Associated Press

A Helena attorney submitted a ballot initiative proposal Tuesday that would change Montana law to remove the power of filling U.S. Senate vacancies from the governor and instead require special elections. The process was in the spotlight last month when Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock named his lieutenant governor, John Walsh, to replace longtime U.S. Sen. Max Baucus. Republican legislative leaders criticized Bullock’s selection, saying it was done in secrecy and with no input from the public. The proposal by attorney James Brown calls for holding a special primary election within 60 days of the governor being notified of a Senate vacancy. The primary would be followed by a special general election between 50 and 85 days later. The winner would serve until the next regular general election.

Montana: Justices uphold rejection of redistricting lawsuit | The Missoulian

The Montana Supreme Court has upheld the rejection of a lawsuit claiming Montana’s Districting and Apportionment Commission improperly assigned a Democratic senator to a new central Montana district. The court, without comment this week, affirmed a ruling by state District Judge Mike Menahan of Helena, who said the five-member panel did not violate open meetings law when it made the Senate District 15 assignment a year ago. Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike McGrath said the court will issue a full opinion later, but wanted to issue its decision before the end of candidate filing next Monday.

Montana: GOP looks to end same-day voter registration | MSNBC

Voting experts say allowing people to register and vote on the same day is among the most effective ways to boost participation in the election process. So naturally, Republicans in states across the country have been looking to crack down on same-day registration. And in Montana, they got a step closer last week to ending the practice. A GOP-backed bill passed last year by state legislators would let Montanans vote this November on whether to end same-day registration. On Wednesday, the state’s Supreme Court ruled against a challenge to the legislation from labor and voting rights groups, clearing the way for the issue to appear on the ballot.

Montana: Same Day voter registration measure can stay on ballot, with some changes | KBZK

The Montana Supreme Court says a referendum that might make it harder for some people to vote can stay on the November ballot -- with revisions to the language that will appear with it. LR-126 would end same-day voter registration in Montana. A group of unions and voting-rights groups challenged the referendum, saying its title is inaccurate and misleading. They said the title of the bill wrongly suggests that ending same-day registration is required under federal law.

Montana: AG agrees: Campaign mailer law unconstitutional | KPAX

The Montana Attorney General says a law on campaign materials passed by the Legislature last year is unconstitutionally vague, setting the stage for a federal judge to throw it out. Matthew Monforton, a Republican running for House District 69 in Bozeman, filed suit to strike down the law, which would have required candidates who publish campaign materials about their opponents' records to include every vote taken on the issues over the previous six years. Monforton's lawsuit against the state says the law chills free speech and is unconstitutionally vague.

Montana: Officials ask high court to review party endorsements in judicial races | The Missoulian

The state’s attorney general and political practices commissioner have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a 2012 federal appeals court decision that struck down Montana’s ban on political party endorsement of candidates in the state’s nonpartisan judicial races. The case involves an attempt by the Sanders County Republican Central Committee in 2012 to endorse candidates for an open Montana Supreme Court race and in a contested race for district judge in the district that includes Lake and Sanders counties.

Montana: Groups ask Supreme Court to strike down referendums | Ravalli Republic

Some unions and other groups have asked the Montana Supreme Court to strike from the 2014 ballot two legislative referendums dealing with elections. They argue that Attorney General Tim Fox should have rejected both referendums because of legal problems with them. Fox’s staff and the bills’ sponsor, Sen. Alan Olson, R-Roundup, disagreed and said the measures approved by the 2013 Legislature should remain on the 2014 ballot. Legislative Referendum 126 would end voter registration on Election Day and move the registration deadline back to 5 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day, which is on Tuesday. The other measure, LR-127, would change Montana’s primary election to what’s known as the “top two” primary system.

Montana: Groups ask Montana court to strike referendums from ballot | The Missoulian

ome unions and other groups have asked the Montana Supreme Court to strike from the 2014 ballot two legislative referendums dealing with elections. They argue that Attorney General Tim Fox should have rejected both referendums because of legal problems with them. Fox’s staff and the bills’ sponsor, Sen. Alan Olson, R-Roundup, disagreed and said the measures approved by the 2013 Legislature should remain on the 2014 ballot. Legislative Referendum 126 would end voter registration on Election Day and move the registration deadline back to 5 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day, which is on Tuesday. The other measure, LR-127, would change Montana’s primary election to what’s known as the “top two” primary system.  Challenging LR-126 are the MEA-MFT, Montana AFL-CIO, Montana Public Employees Association, Montana Human Rights Network, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Montana Women Vote and Western Native Voice. “LR-126 is clear voter suppression, and it cuts across the board of affected groups – Native Americans, university students, people who have changed addresses and veterans,” said Eric Feaver, president of MEA-MFT, the union that is the lead plaintiff in both challenges.

Montana: Native Americans seek equal access to early voting precincts | Inter Press Service

In a lawsuit that could have nationwide implications for balot-box access for tribes across the United States, Native Americans from Montana are pushing for early voting precincts to be placed closer to the locations of three tribal reservations - the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Fort Belknap reservations. “I live in the most isolated area of the reservation. There are no services at all. This is the smallest community of the reservation. We have to drive 21 miles just to go to post office, go to store, go to clinic, gas station, stuff like that,” Mark Wandering Medicine, 66, of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, and the lead plaintiff in the suit, told IPS. He and others filed on Oct. 10, 2012, with the hope of obtaining emergency relief in time for the November 2012 election, as well as permanent relief going forward. The case recently headed back to the U.S. District Court of Montana, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voided an earlier ruling by the district court.

Montana: Judge hits ‘dark money’ group with big penalty | Independent Record

A political group that has gained notoriety for challenging campaign restrictions on corporations was fined $260,000 on Tuesday after a judge said it failed to disclose spending. The civil penalty levied against American Tradition Partnership, which is organized as a nonprofit corporation, demonstrated that new campaign freedoms extended to corporations don't make them immune to state disclosure laws. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock said in his order that the group has shown "complete disregard" for the laws of Montana, its courts, and the tradition of free and open elections. The case involves attack ads mailed by the group in 2008 denouncing candidates. Officials say it did not report the spending as political activity to the state commissioner of political practices. The group, which was headquartered in Montana then Colorado and the Washington, D.C., area, has challenged state campaign finance laws and targeted moderate Republican legislators and Democrats with harsh campaign ads.

Montana: A Win for Fort Peck: Judge Refuses to Dismiss Voting-Rights Suit | Indian Country

A United States magistrate judge has declined to dismiss a voting-rights lawsuit filed by Fort Peck Indian Reservation parents and the American Civil Liberties Union against the Wolf Point School Board of Trustees. The federal suit, which claims the school board’s voting districts favor non-Native voters, may be moving toward mediation, according to both plaintiffs’ attorney Laughlin McDonald, director emeritus of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, and defendants’ attorney Tony Koenig, of the Montana School Board Association. “One option that might be discussed is redistricting. Another might be eliminating some board positions from the district that is seen as over-represented,” said Koenig. Wolf Point is the largest community on the Fort Peck reservation, in northeastern Montana. Currently, each school board member from the predominantly non-Native part of town represents 143 people, while members from the predominantly Native area each represent 841 people. The non-Native area is over-represented, violating both the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to the plaintiffs.

Montana: Missoula’s all-mail elections raise turnout, create confusion | The Missoulian

Sean McQuillan doesn’t send letters by mail, and he definitely doesn’t carry around postage stamps. So to vote in last week’s all-mail election, McQuillan, 21, dropped off his ballot at one of the election drop sites in Missoula. This year was the fourth time the city of Missoula held a mail-only election, and turnout hit 43 percent with the mayor’s race on the ballot. “It really does help drive up participation in elections,” said McQuillan, chairman of the Montana Public Interest Research Group. It does by large numbers, too, according to the Missoula County Elections Office. At the same time, though, casting a ballot in Missoula can be complicated, and the process can leave voters muddled.

Montana: Judge hears arguments in redistricting lawsuit | Billings Gazette

A commission’s last-minute reassignment of two state senators to new central Montana districts was a political move to allow another state senator from Conrad to run for re-election in 2014, and should be thrown out, a lawyer for citizens in one of the districts argued Friday. Matthew Monforton, a Bozeman attorney, said the state Districting and Apportionment Commission members made the decision in closed-door meetings this February, without giving citizens in the affected districts any advance notice to comment. “This is a case where governmental power was used not for the benefit of the public, but rather to serve the interest of one man: (state Sen.) Llew Jones,” Monforton told a district judge in Helena. “Montana Senate seats are not the personal property of Llew Jones or any other citizen.” But an attorney for the state said the five-member panel violated no laws when it decided Feb. 12 to change districts assigned to a pair of senators, thus freeing up a district where Jones, a Conrad Republican, could run for re-election in 2014.

Montana: Error forced recount of 20,000 Missoula ballots | KPAX

An unexpected error last night forced the recount of more than 20,000 ballots, and had election workers clocking hours into the morning. Missoula County Clerk and Recorder Vickie Zeier said they were just about finished up for the night when one of the tabulating workers accidentally zeroed her machine. The officer did save the work, but didn't hit the "save to disk" option - which combines all the ballots on each machine. Zeier told MTN News that it didn't take long to decide the only option was to do a recount.

Montana: 20,000 Missoula election ballots to be recounted | The Missoulian

A missed step on the last box of ballots sent what otherwise was an uneventful election into a late-night recount. Missoula County Clerk and Recorder Vickie Zeier said the final machine-counting of 359 ballots was recorded but not saved properly to a computer memory disk. Election workers used tracking sheets to re-create the count - checking 12 ballots from one ward, 62 from another, and so on according to the list of what was in that final box.

Montana: Native Vote Lawsuit Heads Back to District Court and a New Judge | ICTMN

The Native voting-rights lawsuit, Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch, is headed back to Montana district court for a rematch. On October 30, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Portland, Oregon, dismissed the Montana tribal members’ appeal in the suit because it applied to reservation polling places they’d been denied for the 2012 election, and that election is over. However, the appeals panel also “vacated” the district court’s denial of the offices. In November 2012, the lower-court judge acknowledged that Montana’s Native people don’t have equal voting opportunities. However, since they have had some success electing representatives of their choice, they don’t need any more access, the judge reasoned. That judge has since retired following an unrelated scandal. Thanks to the Ninth Circuit’s decision, a new judge will hear the case and decide whether the reservation polling places should be provided in future elections.

Montana: GOP Congressional Candidate Using Campaign Money Scheme Pioneered by…Stephen Colbert | Mother Jones

Ryan Zinke, a Republican running for Congress in Montana, is using a novel scheme to bankroll his congressional campaign—one that originated with Stephen Colbert. In January 2012, Colbert summoned Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Trevor Potter, a campaign finance expert, to the Colbert Report studio for a surprise announcement: Colbert was handing control of his super-PAC—a political action committee that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on political races—to Stewart. The two comedians signed a two-page document, then held hands and locked eyes while Potter bellowed the words, "Colbert super-PAC transfer, activate!" Colbert then announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to weigh a run for "President of the United States of South Carolina." Stewart, meanwhile, renamed Colbert's super-PAC the Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC, and promised Colbert he would run ads to support Colbert's presidential bid. The point of Colbert and Stewart's comedy bit was to demonstrate that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision had rendered campaign finance law remarkably flimsy—so weak that it was legal for a person to start a super-PAC, raise unlimited heaps of cash from big-money donors for that super-PAC, quit the super-PAC, and then run for federal office supported by that super-PAC. Here was an easy way to escape the $2,500 limit on what individuals may give to federal candidates.

Montana: Judges send Indian voting case back to Montana | Ravalli Republic

A voting rights lawsuit involving three American Indian tribes will go back to a federal court in Montana after an appellate panel declined to intervene. The plaintiffs from the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap tribes say three counties should set up satellite voting offices to make up for the long distances they must drive to reach courthouses for early voting or late registration. After a now-retired judge declined to intervene before the 2012 election, the 16 Indian plaintiffs appealed. But a three-judge appeals panel wrote in a Wednesday opinion that the emergency injunction request by the Indians is now moot. They sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Montana for a decision on future elections.

Montana: DOJ Declares Indian Vote Denial ‘Completely Incorrect’ | ICTMN.com

“May it please the court, Erin Flynn on behalf of the United States.” So began the Justice Department’s presentation in a landmark Native voting-rights lawsuit. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Portland, Oregon, heard oral arguments in the suit,Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch,on October 10. The appeals court’s decision, upcoming in the next few months, will turn on whether a Montana district judge misread Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act when he denied requests for satellite registration and early-voting offices on isolated Montana reservations. The local magistrate reasoned that Indians have been elected to office in the state, so Indian voters’ lack of equal rights—which he readily acknowledged—was immaterial. “The district judge held that as long as Indians get to vote at all, what’s the problem,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Sandven, of Sioux Falls. “The law needs to be clarified.”

Montana: Dark Money Operative Sees Hope for Meth House Documents Go Up in Smoke | ProPublica

In a sharply worded ruling, a federal judge in Montana said Tuesday that documents found inside a Colorado meth house pointing to possible election law violations will not be returned to the couple claiming the papers were stolen from one of their cars. Instead, the thousands of pages will remain where they are -- with a federal grand jury in Montana, investigating the dark money group American Tradition Partnership, once known as Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP. The documents, detailed last fall in aFrontline documentary and ProPublica coverage, point to possible illegal coordination between candidates and WTP, which since 2008 has worked to replace moderate Republicans with more conservative candidates in both Montana and Colorado. The documents, including a folder labeled “Montana $ Bomb,” provided the first real glimpse inside a dark money group. Such so-called social welfare nonprofits, which have poured more than $350 million into federal election ads in recent years, don’t have to disclose their donors.

Montana: Lawyers: Wrong standard used in Indian voting case | Associated Press

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon decide whether American Indians in rural Montana were wrongly denied on-reservation satellite voting offices that the plaintiffs say are needed to make up for the long distances they must drive to reach county courthouses. Attorneys representing tribal members and the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday told judges in Portland that a federal judge used the wrong legal standard when he denied a request to establish satellite election offices on three reservations. The attorneys said U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull overlooked the fact that some Indians are denied equal access to voting because they can't afford to travel up to 150 miles to county courthouses. Cebull since has retired after forwarding an email with a racist joke about President Barack Obama. Montanans can vote by mail with early absentee ballots or by delivering ballots in person to county offices; late registration begins at county offices a month before Election Day.

Montana: Northern Cheyenne reservation fighting to secure voting rights | theguardian.com

Mark Wandering Medicine has sacrificed more than most for his country. He served six years in the US marines, fought through the bloodiest years of the Vietnam war and almost lost a leg when his scouting unit was ambushed near the North Vietnamese border in 1972. Since he returned home to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana, however, he has received scant thanks for his service. He spent 13 years battling government bureaucrats before receiving his first disability payment. Like many Native Americans raised on desperately poor reservations in remote parts of the country, he has never lived far from the poverty line. Now he is fighting once more, this time to overcome a century and a half of disenfranchisement and secure voting rights for his fellow Native Americans. He has barely voted over the past 40 years, not because he hasn't wanted to but because it is too difficult. The only sure way to register to vote, he says, is to make a 157-mile round trip from his home to the nearest county seat. There is no public transport, and most people can't afford the trip – even assuming they have a working car with valid license plates and insurance, which is rarely the case. The few who do make the journey have to run a gamut of racism and hostility that, they say, can often land them in jail on charges of drunkenness and public disorder.

Montana: Judge rules campaign disclosure law constitutional | The Missoulian

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Montana’s requirement that political committees disclose their campaign spending is constitutional. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen sided with the state in a new decision, and dismissed a case brought last year by the National Association for Gun Rights. He wrote that the public’s right to know who is financing political campaigns vastly outweighs the minimal burden imposed on committees required to report the information. The Virginia nonprofit organization originally argued it wanted to send political mailings on gun issues without registering as a political committee. The organization said it advances the “God-given right” to keep and bear arms.