The deadline for ballot measure groups to gather and submit tens of thousands of signatures passed on Friday, June 19, and multiple organizations said they have submitted enough signatures to qualify for the general election ballot.  If enough of those signatures are ultimately approved by coun ty and state officials, voters in November will have a chance to weigh in on key policy questions that could influence judicial elections, dark money in state politics and the referendum process itself.   Ballot initiative campaigns have become multimillion-dollar affairs, and Montana has passed several high-profile constitutional and statutory initiatives in recent years, including measures that enshrined the right to pre-fetal viability abortions in the state Constitution and legalized the adult use of cannabis.  The number of signatures required to qualify an initiative for the ballot in Montana is calculated as a percentage of the number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. This year, organizers for constitutional amendments were required to gather just over 60,000 signatures from 40 legislative House districts, while statutory initiative backers had to gather roughly 30,000 signatures from 34 House districts.  County election officials must verify that each signer is a registered voter and that their signature matches the signature on file with their office. Approved signatures must be forwarded by July 17 to be tabulated by the Montana secretary of state.  Some signatures are inevitably disqualified for various reasons, so initiative organizers often aim to collect more than the necessary number of signatures.  Here are the ballot initiatives that are likely to be on the 2026 ballot, the changes they intend to enact, and some that will not make the cut.  NONPARTISAN JUDICIAL ELECTIONS  Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts said recently that it has gathered more than 102,000 signatures from 57 House districts, far surpassing the necessary threshold. The group started collecting signatures in November, and as of this month, roughly 53,000 have already been approved by county elections officials on a rolling basis.  Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts (MNC) is the ballot issue group behind CI-132, which aims to preserve the existing nonpartisan status of judicial elections in the state. The effort was launched on the heels of the 2025 legislative session, during which a large faction of Republicans brought multiple bills that would have changed judicial races to partisan contests. The bills were voted down repeatedly by a more centrist coalition of Republicans and Democrats.  If the initiative is approved by voters, it will become markedly more difficult for Republicans to make judicial elections partisan in the future.  The bills were in part born of Republican frustration at seeing a slew of GOP laws on voting rights and transgender rights struck down by state courts.  The Montana Republican Party, a private organization that sets policy priorities and standards for the state’s Republican candidates and officeholders, has been vocal in its opposition to CI-132. Earlier this year, the state party passed a resolution opposing the initiative.  “…the Montana Supreme Court has long acted as a partisan Democrat bench, making decisions when plaintiffs had no judicial standing and, in many cases, striking down democratically adopted laws using far-fetched interpretations of the Montana Constitution,” the resolution read.  The Montana GOP believes that candidates for judicial office should be able to campaign with a partisan label if they choose to. The resolution argues that such a label would give voters more information upon which to base decisions and reform elections to be “free, fair, and honest.” Montana GOP chairman Art Wittich said in a phone interview that the initiative is an attempt to “restrict” candidates and other political players. The state party has not yet made any decisions about how to campaign against the initiative, Wittich added.  MNC employed 165 paid signature gatherers and 200 volunteers, and spent more than $1 million on signature-gathering efforts. From July 2025 until late May 2026, the group spent just over $2 million, according to the most recent campaign finance filings. During that same time frame, MNC raised $2.79 million, roughly 79% of which came from four groups whose donors are largely unknown. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Global Impact Social Welfare Fund–Montana each contributed $600,000 in cash donations, while The Fairness Project and A Better Big Sky each contributed $500,000.  The Fairness Project and Global Impact Social Welfare Fund–Montana are also major contributors to another constitutional initiative that’s poised to qualify for the ballot later this year. The Fairness Project, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that does not have to disclose its funding sources, is labor union-backed and tends to support progressive state ballot measures. Global Impact Social Welfare Fund also does not have to disclose its donors, and it previously gave $2.6 million to the group behind the pre-fetal viability abortion initiative in 2024, according to campaign finance filings.  “While it’s been a massive effort to qualify this measure for the ballot, our work is really just beginning,” MNC spokesperson Caitie Butler said in a press release. “We have just under five months to make sure Montanans from Sanders County to Sheridan County understand why nonpartisan judicial elections matter to their lives. Montanans deserve fair and impartial judges, from the Supreme Court down to traffic court.”  SAFEGUARDING VOTER-LED LAWMAKING  Another constitutional amendment that’s likely to appear on voters’ ballots in November is designed to safeguard the ballot initiative process itself.  Montanans Decide, the group supporting CI-133, said it gathered more than 100,000 signatures across the state.  According to the initiative’s ballot language, CI-133 would shield the ballot initiative process “from interference by the government” by requiring an “impartial, predictable, open, and timely” process for ballot measures.  According to organizers, CI-133 is a response to increased “political maneuvers” and “attacks” on the referendum process, which organizers say include bill proposals and interference by state agencies. Montanans Decide and CI-133 have themselves been subject to government-driven procedural setbacks: Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen initially determined that the initiative’s language was legally insufficient. Montanans Decide sued over that decision and the state Supreme Court overturned Knudsen’s finding.  In 2024, other ballot measure groups ran into similar procedural hiccups, including a later overturned directive from Montana’s secretary of state telling county election officials not to tally certain signatures. CI-133 would require that initiative language be assessed by the state within 90 days of its initial submission, and that “reasonably ample time” be allowed for signature gathering. It also requires that legal challenges to initiatives must be resolved before the secretary of state’s deadline for finalizing ballots, which is 75 days before the general election. In the Montana Supreme Court case about the sufficiency of the initiative language, Chief Justice Cory Swanson dissented, arguing that the initiative as worded stands to limit powers necessary to judicial function, noting that courts can’t control either the complexity or the timelines of cases.  The ballot language also requires the “verification of signatures and petitions without the invalidation of a signature or petition due to a technical or minor deficiency.”  Columbia Falls Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, who has brought a number of bills related to the initiative process, took issue with the practical application of that language in an interview with MTFP.  “I think we’re opening the door to endless litigation and leaving it up to courts to decide where the line is,” he said in a text message.  More than 99% of Montanans Decide’s funding has come from three 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations that do not have to disclose their donors, including The Fairness Project and Global Impact Social Welfare Fund–Montana, which have donated $847,500 and $605,000, respectively.  The third top donor, American Opportunity Action Fund, which is largely funded by billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, contributed $380,000 between October and late May.  “Montanans Decide is led by in-state advocates and organizations,” CI-133 spokesperson Dani Hess said in an email. “We are grateful to have dozens of individual donors who’ve contributed to this effort, alongside volunteers and organizations who’ve given their time to ensure Montana’s ballot initiative process is protected from government interference.” BANNING CORPORATE AND DARK MONEY IN MONTANA ELECTIONS  An organization seeking to rid the state’s political campaigns of corporate and “dark money” has announced it has gathered and submitted enough signatures to put a statutory initiative in front of voters.  Unlike a constitutional initiative, which would amend the Montana Constitution, I-194 would change state code, which is easier for legislators to later amend or overturn.  Initiative 194, which is backed by a ballot issue group called The Montana Plan and headed up by former Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan, seeks to remove dark money and corporate dollars from state elections by prohibiting political spending by “artificial persons” such as nonprofits, for-profit corporations, trade associations, trusts and others. Mangan said in a Thursday email that the group has submitted nearly 50,0000 signatures, of which about 35,000 have already been verified, hitting the necessary threshold for a statutory initiative.   The initiative is designed to undermine a landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United, which held that corporations have a First Amendment right to political speech. Mangan and other initiative backers contend that states — not the federal government — have the authority to define corporations, and thus the authority to limit corporate spending in politics.  The initiative is endorsed by a number of notable in-state and national political figures, including former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot, former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, New York City Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Pete Buttigieg, the Biden administration’s transportation secretary and a rumored 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. Buttigieg traveled to Butte last month to headline an event promoting I-194.  Todd O’Hair, president of the Montana Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the initiative, argued in a phone interview that it would “prevent businesses from defending themselves.”  Asked to respond to that critique, Mangan called the argument “backwards” and distinguished between small business owners and large corporations.  “In Montana, small business owners have historically participated in politics as individuals, not by cutting checks from their business treasuries,” Mangan said. “The real threat is multinational corporations and dark-money groups drowning their voice out, including the same corporate interests opposing us, who are also pushing energy, tax and other schemes where Montanans Mainstreet want their voice to matter.” Roughly 77% of the funds The Montana Plan has raised between July 2025 and the end of May came from the Transparent Election Initiative, a 501(c)(4) also led by Mangan. During that span of time, The Montana Plan has raised $145,892, $112,089 of which has come in the form of cash donations from the Transparent Election Initiative. The Montana Plan has so far spent just under $50,000.  DID NOT QUALIFY  Multiple initiatives aimed at capping property taxes will not qualify for the 2026 ballot after their organizers decided not to launch full-fledged signature-gathering campaigns.  Since property taxes spiked in 2023, many Montana homeowners have been forced into a financial pinch, and politicians of all stripes have since called for reforming how property taxes are assessed and levied. During the 2025 session, lawmakers passed a property tax package that brought huge changes to the system, but many legislators are still dissatisfied. It is likely that legislators will seek to pass further reforms during the 2027 session.  An initiative proposed by Martinsdale Republican Sen. Wylie Galt, former Speaker of the House and member of a prominent landowning family, would have limited local governments’ property tax increases to no more than 2% per year, with some exceptions. A recent press release said the organization will not continue to promote the ballot question after “feedback from businesses, public officials, and other individuals.” A spokesperson for Galt’s initiative did not respond to a request for additional details.   A separate pair of property tax cap initiatives backed by Bozeman-based attorney and former Republican legislator Matthew Monforton never launched a signature-gathering effort. Monforton’s two initiatives would have limited annual increases in the valuation of a primary residence to 2%. The market value of a property is one of the main factors that determines how much property tax an owner will pay.  Monforton said he found it difficult to “persuade [individual homeowners] into collective political activity or political fundraising.”   “We just weren’t able to get the funds, and we decided without at least … some paid signature gatherers it would be futile,” Monforton said in a phone interview.  The post The ballot questions likely to come before voters in November appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less