News & Commentary

2016 is an election year, and with the new year comes both opportunities and challenges to the voting rights of Montana citizens.  Indians in Montana have been routinely denied rights since Montana first became a territory.  Although many  tribes have lived in Montana for thousands of years, they were denied United States citizenship until the passage of the federal Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, less than a century ago.   Even then Indians were not welcomed as citizens, but instead were subject to a determined campaign by the State of Montana and its political subdivisions to marginalize Indians as voters.

Montana voters have the right to know the source of significant spending for or against candidates and ballot measures. But over-broad disclosure requirements can chill the exercise of First Amendment rights to association and expression. That's why  we asked the Commissioner of Political Practices to revise his proposed rules back in September.