- Click here to read the full article BY NATIVE NEWS ONLINE STAFF MARCH 27, 2024
Native Vote 2024. The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down four state laws that were passed by the Republican-controlled legislature to restrict voters. Two of the laws would have suppressed Native American votes.
The state’s highest court ruled the laws unconstitutional. Four of seven of the Supreme Court justices signed the opinion. The laws “violate the fundamental right to vote provided to all citizens by the Montana Constitution,” according to the ruling’s summary.
One measure, HB 176, would have ended Election Day registration; the other, HB 530, aimed to prohibit paid third-party ballot assistance. Native American voters living on reservations disproportionately rely upon both Election Day registration and ballot assistance to cast votes in Montana.
On Wednesday, the ruling said both HB 176 and HB 530 disproportionately and unconstitutionally burdened the voting rights of Native Americans, in part because it is “much more difficult on average for people living on reservations to either get to a polling place on or before election day, or to mail an absentee ballot prior to election day.”
The decision affirms a September 2022 decision from the Thirteenth Judicial District Court, which permanently enjoined both HB 176 and HB 530 as unconstitutional.
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