Montana becomes eighth state with ballot measure seeking to protect abortion rights
Once again, Montana’s Republican Secretary of State, Christi Jacobsen, has been caught with her thumb on the scale of justice by the Montana Supreme Court. This time her voter-suppression tactic involved cynically attempting to invalidate the signatures of some Montana registered voters who signed petitions to put the abortion rights and two election reform voters’ initiatives on the ballot in the November 5, 2024, general election.
Jacobsen’s Democratic challenger, Jesse James Mullen, described the situation well: “Invalidating legitimate Montana signatures for purely political reasons is an absolute abuse of her office and the trust Montanans place in our elected officials. . . I fear her efforts may further damage the public trust and result in purging more legal Montana voters in the lead-up to our general election.”
Thanks to the legal advocacy of Raph Graybill, an attorney for Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights (MSRR) and the Lt. Governor running mate of the Democratic candidate for governor, Ryan Busse, a Montana District Court found that Jacobsen’s abrupt and unlawful changing of initiative rules violates Montanans’ right to propose constitutional amendments by initiative. When Jacobsen and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen asked the Montana Supreme Court to throw out the district court’s order that restored the way signatures are counted for the three constitutional ballot initiatives to the way signatures had been counted for decades, they got an answer that once again revealed the ramapant corruption in the Gianforte adminstration.
The Montana Supreme Court unanimously said Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen had not proven that District Court Judge Mike Menahan erred when he told her office to count the signatures of “inactive” voters toward the minimum threshold for placing initiatives on the ballot — as has been practice.
The Montana Supreme Court unanimously ruled that “[Montana code] provides that the Secretary bears the responsibility to obtain and maintain uniformity in the application, operation and interpretation of election laws. . . Jacobsen’s decision to change the Secretary’s longstanding practice to count the signatures of inactive voters — and to do so without notice to county election administrators after they had commenced petition processing — failed to maintain uniformity in the application, operation and interpretation of the election laws in this instance.”
Since Greg Gianforte became governor, Raph Graybill has blocked 14 different unconstitutional laws that invade Montanans’ Constitutional rights. With the above rulings, Raph Graybill is undefeated against Greg Gianforte in blocking the Governor’s (and now Jacobsen’s and Austin Knudsen’s) unconstitutional attempts at abortion bans.
To mix metaphors just a little, all Montanans will have a chance to fire Christi Jacobsen, Austin Knudsen, and Greg Gianforte at the polls on November 5, 2024 for having been caught many times with their hands in the cookie jar of our constitutional rights. The Gianforte administration has attempted over and over again to use a tactic that all autocrats have used, reducing the number of registered voters, so that the tyants can govern instead of the people.
If you need to brush up on such tactics, check out the Netflix documentary, How to Become a Tyrant. Then, vote for candidates running in our Tuesday, November 5, 2024, general election who actually respect and support our Montana Constitution and US Constitution.