Montana judge: Signatures of inactive voters count for initiatives, including 1 to protect abortion

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge said Tuesday that the Secretary of State’s Office erred in changing the rules governing whose signatures should count on petitions for three constitutional initiatives — including one to protect abortion rights — after officials tried to omit the signatures of inactive voters.

District Judge Mike Menahan said he would give county election offices another week to tally signatures of inactive voters that had been rejected, saying they should count. All of the initiatives are expected to qualify for the November ballot.

Two organizations sued Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen after her office, in response to a question from a county election officer, said the signatures of voters who were considered “inactive” should not count toward the number of signatures needed to place initiatives on the ballot.

The change was made after the signatures had been turned in to counties and after some of the signatures had been verified.

Thane Johnson, an attorney representing Jacobsen’s office, argued that a ruling wasn’t urgently needed. Johnson noted that supporters of the abortion initiative, another to hold open primaries and a third to require candidates to obtain a majority vote to win a general election had already turned in more than enough signatures to qualify, even without signatures from inactive voters. Johnson also argued that voters weren’t being disenfranchised by their signature being rejected from a petition.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true»