Montana’s top court on May 17 restored election laws that prohibit same-day voter registration and impose voter identification requirements beyond those previously in place.
The Montana Supreme Court’s 4–1 decision means House Bill 176, which forbids voters from registering on the same day as an election, and Senate Bill 169, which eliminates school identification as the sole source of identification for voters, will be in effect for the upcoming primaries.
A district court judge in the state blocked the laws in April, finding that the constitutional rights of plaintiffs, including Native American tribes, would be harmed if they were not.
But because 337,000 Montana residents voted while the laws were in effect in 2021, it is prudent to leave the status quo in place, Montana’s top court ruled in an 8-page order (pdf)….