In a change from the practice of many past years, this year Republican Christi Jacobsen’s office has directed county clerks to no longer count the signatures of “inactive” voters toward the total required to qualify the ballot measure.
This is impactful because Montana’s county clerks inactivate many voters each year simply for not voting in the most recent Federal election. These people have not been removed from the rolls and are still eligible to vote, but must “re-register” even as late as election day. This inactivation process is so aggressive that many counties in the fast-growing state of Montana have less “active” voters today than the total that showed up and voted in the high-turnout 2020 Federal presidential election.
The SOS website lists the number of active and inactive voters in each county here: https://sosmt.gov/elections/regvotercounty/
According to those numbers Montana has a current total of 757237 registered voters, 158781 of which are in “inactive” status. By SOS Jacobsen’s new interpretation of what constitutes a “qualified elector”, the Gianforte administration has unilaterally decided that fully 21% of registered Montana voters are disenfranchised from their right to sign a qualifying petition.
If you can’t beat ’em with AG Knudsen’s various ballot qualifying shenanigans then try to beat ’em by redefining what constitutes a qualified elector. When Republicans are in charge never ever allow the people of Montana to exercise their constitutional right to vote on constitutional amendments by ballot initiative. They might vote different than what the masters prefer.
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