Abortion rights supporters report having enough signatures to qualify for Montana ballot

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — An initiative to ask voters if they want to protect the right to a pre-viability abortion in Montana’s constitution has enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, supporters said Friday.

County election officials have verified 74,186 voter signatures, more than the 60,359 needed for the constitutional initiative to go before voters. It has also met the threshold of 10% of voters in 51 House Districts — more than the required 40 districts, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights said.

“We’re excited to have met the valid signature threshold and the House District threshold required to qualify this critical initiative for the ballot,” Kiersten Iwai, executive director of Forward Montana and spokesperson for Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights said in a statement.

Still pending is whether the signatures of inactive voters should count toward the total.

Montana’s secretary of state said they shouldn’t, but it didn’t make that statement until after the signatures were gathered and after some counties had begun verifying them.

A Helena judge ruled Tuesday that the qualifications shouldn’t have been changed midstream and said the signatures of inactive voters that had been rejected should be verified and counted. District Judge Mike Menahan said those signatures could be accepted through next Wednesday.

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