Bill To End Election-Day Registration In Montana Advances

By Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Daily Montanan

February 4, 2021

Legislation to end same-day voter registration on Election Day in Montana has cleared a key hurdle in the state House despite a rocky hearing that saw concerted opposition from indigenous lawmakers worried about the disenfranchisement of some voters and frustration from some conservatives who felt the bill doesn’t go far enough.

The bill, HB176 from Rep. Sharon Greef, R-Florence, is a top priority of Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, an effort that Republicans say is to shore up election integrity in the state. It passed on second read Thursday 61-39, with a small number of Republicans joining Democrats in opposing the legislation. With an amendment introduced in committee, it now cuts off registration at noon the day before an election.

“Elctions don’t pop up out of the blue,” Greef said. “Election officials should concentrate on one thing the day of the election, and that is the election.”

As initially written, the bill would have ended voter registration the Friday before election day. But lawmakers on the House State Administration Committee balked and tabled the proposal. A week later, the committee voted to revive the bill with an amendment moving back the cutoff, after the Governor and Secretary of State pressured lawmakers to let it get a hearing in front of the full House.

“Our committee worked very, very hard and came up with a compromise and decided on Monday for a variety of reasons,” Greef said.

Even with that, opponents have warned that the bill could inhibit the ability to vote of the thousands of Montanans who register on election day each year, especially those who are low-income or live on Native American reservations.

Rep. Tyson Runningwolf, R-Browning, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, said he didn’t register to vote until 2006, in part because he felt intimidated by the process and by the county officials running elections.

His wife brought him to register and vote on election day, which he resisted, fearing all the paperwork he’d have to fill out. But the year before, the Legislature had changed the law to allow same-day registration, she informed him.

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