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Montana bill would let online obituaries speed removal of deceased voters
Summary
Supporters told the House State Administration committee HB 248 would modernize statutes so funeral-home obituaries posted online can be used to cancel voter registrations more quickly, reducing the lag between a death and removal from voter rolls.
Representative Braxton Mitchell introduced House Bill 248 as a narrowly tailored update to Montana’s voter-cancellation law to reflect how families now publish obituaries. Proponents, including Austin James for Secretary of State Christy Jacobson and several Montana funeral directors, said the current statute ties a clerk’s ability to cancel a voter to either a death certificate or an obituary published in a newspaper, which increasingly is no longer the norm.
Austin James, elections director and counsel for the Secretary of State’s office, told the committee officials saw long delays between death and…
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