Growing number of Montana ballot initiatives proposed
Jonathan Ambarian
HELENA (KPAX) — There’s a growing list of organizations trying to get constitutional amendments onto Montana’s 2026 ballot. That now includes one proposal to revise the ballot measure process itself.
The group Montanans Decide announced it has submitted language to the Montana Secretary of State’s office, for a proposed measure that would add more specifics to the right to propose a ballot initiative.
The Montana Constitution already guarantees the public the right to pass laws and constitutional amendments through ballot issues. However, some advocates say, in recent years, the state Legislature has passed laws making it more complicated to exercise that right.
“They've implemented exorbitant fees in order to file an initiative, which I think is meant to deter the average Montanan from participating in the process,” said SK Rossi, a spokesperson for Montanans Decide. “They've layered in a lot of bureaucracy and administrative rigamarole meant to make it harder for signature gatherers to gather signatures, and generally kind of gum up the works.”
The group’s proposed initiative would amend the state Constitution to say people have a right to “impartial, predictable, transparent, and expeditious processes for proposing, qualifying for the ballot, and submitting ballot issues.” It specifically says that should include “reasonably ample time” to gather signatures, timely resolution of legal challenges and a prohibition on “the invalidation of any signature or petition due to a technical or minor deficiency.”
“We know that Montanans care deeply about their ability to propose and vote on laws that affect their lives, and this is our effort to make sure that happens,” Rossi said.
Montanans Decide’s proposal also says the government should only be allowed to modify the language an initiative sponsor submits to appear on the ballot “if they are not a true and impartial explanation expressed in plain, easily understood language.” That’s a point of debate that’s sprung up in several recent initiative campaigns – and it’s now appearing again for one of the other 2026 proposals: Constitutional Initiative 131, which would keep political party labels off the ballot in Montana judicial elections.
The Montana Attorney General’s Office is tasked with reviewing proposed initiatives to see if they comply with state law. At the same time, they check the sponsor’s “statement of purpose and implication,” to determine whether it clearly explains the proposal and doesn’t create “prejudice for or against the issue.”
Last month, Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office declared CI-131 was legally sufficient, and supporters could begin collecting signatures. However, they rejected the sponsors’ proposed ballot statement. The office submitted its own language, saying, “A non-partisan election prohibits labeling candidates on the ballot according to the political party the candidate aligns with including labels like independent.”
Montanans for Fair and Impartial Judges, the committee backing CI-131, filed suit with the Montana Supreme Court, saying the Attorney General hadn’t given enough justification for replacing the statement and that the new language was “prejudicial and misleading” and implied nonpartisan elections would conceal information from voters.
“This is exactly the kind of argument—not description—that belongs in the ‘opponent arguments’ section of the Voter Information Pamphlet, not the ballot statement itself,” the group’s complaint said.