Koopman: Denied your right to write in

Roger Koopman

You may think you have the right to vote. The right to exercise your constitutional franchise to select the candidate of your choice. You would be wrong. In Montana, that right no longer exists.

The politicians have seen to that. They have filtered your choices for you, and left your right to choose on the floor of the legislature like a rotting corpse. All to benefit themselves.

For many voters, the write-in lines are hardly noticed. They may not like any of the candidates printed on the ballot, but they either (a) don’t have anyone else in mind to write in, or (b) figure it’s better to vote for the lesser of evils. I’ve been there – although the “lesser of evils” votes I’ve always come to regret.

But the thing about a constitutional right is not how and when you exercise it yourself, but how you faithfully preserve it for others. I’m a very active hunter and gun owner. But if I hated guns and didn’t own one, I would fight just as hard to defend the Second Amendment for those who do. And so it is with our franchise – the right to vote, ensconced in the Fourteenth Amendment, and further guaranteed by freedom of speech.

Implicit in the act of voting is the free expression of one’s personal conscience – the absolute right to vote for whomever you choose. For some voters, that includes their use of the write-in line, when the person they want is not listed on the ballot as a filed party candidate or independent. The rest of us must respect that person’s right to participate in the electoral process in such a way that does not violate their own conscience or prohibit them from standing up for what they believe. And for those who are thoroughly disgusted with their choice of politicians, the write-in line also provides a cherished form of protest. The First Amendment guarantees it.

Montana law, consistent with our state constitution, has always protected the write-in option on our ballots, but that all changed in 2023 with the passage of HB 536. Prompted by the convenience argument of county election clerks (since when is freedom “convenient?”) and by their own self-interest, legislators voted to stop counting most write-in votes. Only if the person you voted for had secured official, state-sanctioned status, by paying a filing fee and submitting a detailed “Declaration” with the Secretary of State, would the State of Montana recognize your write-in as an authentic vote. 143 of 147 legislators supported this draconian measure, with only one Republican, Sen. Brad Molnar, voting no.

It would be reasonable to ask, what in the world were these legislators thinking, spending their time restricting voting rights? Oh, but they weren’t done yet. Two years later, they passed yet another write-in restriction. HB 207, the so-called “anti-spoiler bill,” made it illegal for any candidate who lost their party’s primary, to register as a write-in for the general. Once again, our intrepid legislators were focused on protecting themselves – wishing to capture lost votes and protect their image.

We should be outraged.

Then comes Chapter Three. Thanks to the administrative rulemaking of Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, not only will Montana’s 2026 general election not count the votes of unregistered write-ins, but Jacobsen unilaterally decreed that the write-in lines be removed! In her words, “Only having a write-in line for offices with filed write-in candidates reduces the administrative burden on county election staff and election judges.” Convenience trumps the Constitution.

It appears that our lawmakers and election bureaucrats have never read the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, which protects “the right to vote,” and asserts that such rights must not be “in any way abridged” by the states. Or the Montana Constitution, which guarantees the “purity of elections” and makes clear, that with the exception of specific office qualifications, any elector is free to run for any office.

Such is the current broken state of the democratic process in Montana. Flagrant voter suppression of those who wish to express their convictions with write-ins.

This is intolerable, and I for one will not accept it. When I receive my general election ballot this fall, I will take a straight-edge and draw in the write-in lines – along with accompanying ovals. I will write in whomever I please.

In the name of freedom, I encourage you to do the same. Then get your legislators to repeal the garbage they placed in the Montana Code that stands in the way of your sacred rights.

Roger Koopman is president of Montana Conservative Alliance. He served four years in the Montana House of Representatives and eight years as a Montana Public Service Commissioner. Koopman operated a Bozeman small business for 37 years.