Judge temporarily halts several new Montana voting laws ahead of statewide election

A Yellowstone County District Court Judge has ordered a preliminary injunction against four voting bills passed in 2021 by the Montana State Legislature. Ballots for statewide elections are scheduled to go out in about a month. Judge Michael Moses says his injunction will preserve the status quo for this election and that his preliminary assessment of the bills is that they pose the potential for “constitutional injury” to Montana voters. A Montana Republican has condemned the judge’s decision as “judicial activism at its worst.” Together the bills would ban election day registration and paid ballot collection, strengthen voter ID laws, and end the practice of issuing ballots to seventeen year-olds who will turn eighteen before election day. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Image Credit: Martin Kraft (CC BY-SA 3.0)