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Committee hears bill to add party-preference field to Montana voter registration
Summary
Senate Bill 129 would allow electors to record a political party preference on voter-registration records; supporters call it a First Amendment ‘‘freedom of association’’ measure while tribal and elections officials warned of administrative and privacy burdens. The committee held a public hearing but took no formal vote.
Senator Jeremy Trevis of Great Falls, sponsor of Senate Bill 129, told the Senate State Administration Committee that the bill would allow Montana electors to add a political party preference to their voter registration records.
Trevis said the proposal is rooted in the First Amendment. "In my mind, this is a freedom of association bill under the First Amendment," he told the committee as he walked members through the bill's changes to statewide and local voter lists and the precinct register.
The bill would add an optional field on registration forms listing party choices (and allow an option to decline to state a preference), and would create a new column in voter files, Trevis said. He suggested a delayed effective date could be added; he and others mentioned January 1, 2026 as a possible amendment to avoid immediate implementation.
Opponents said the change would create extra work for county election administrators and raise privacy concerns. Patrick Yawake, testifying on behalf of the Blackfeet Tribe and the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, said the bill "creates more of a burden on the Montana electorate" and warned it would impose additional data-collection and storage responsibilities on county clerks and recorders. "Montana, again, is content with nonpartisan elections," Yawake said, and asked the committee to table the bill.
Austin James, speaking informationally on behalf of Secretary of State Christy Jacobson, described how the office would implement the change if the bill became law: an optional line would be added on the voter-registration card and the information captured as an additional column in the voter-registration system and any purchased voter files. "That information would be captured in the voter registration system, and purchasers of voter files ... would have that as an additional column," James said.
Committee members pressed for practical details. Senator Ellis asked whether the bill would change how primary ballots are distributed; Trevis replied it would not change Montana's open primary practice and said, "I imagine you'll get four ballots again." Senator Vance asked how the precinct register used by election judges would look; Trevis said the register would likely include the new party column but that the bill was not designed primarily for election-judge procedures. Vice Chair McCamey raised constitutional concerns about ballot secrecy and government expansion; Trevis and James both said the secrecy of votes would remain protected and that the bill would only add an optional registration field.
The committee closed the hearing on SB 129 with no formal vote and moved on to a hearing on Senate Bill 130.
