Montana Election Observation Initiative Final Report 2024

In a final report on elections in Carbon, Cascade, Lake, Lewis and Clark and Missoula counties, Montana Election Observation Initiative said local officials followed state law, maintained strong chain-of-custody procedures and gave observers access from pre-election testing through the post-election canvass. Both hand counts in smaller counties and machine tabulation in larger ones were conducted without technical issues, with unofficial results posted in offices and online within hours of polls closing. The report said Montana’s vote-by-mail system, anchored in signature verification and paper ballots, continued to meet key security and access standards. Pre-election logic and accuracy tests for tabulators were completed on time and in public, and ballots were consistently tracked, batched and securely stored between processing sessions. Observers raised sharper concerns about House Bill 719, which for the first time required voters to provide a year of birth on absentee materials. Across the observed counties, between roughly 1 and 4% of ballots needed curing because of missing or deficient information, and only 38 to 58%of those voters ultimately corrected their ballots where full data were available. MTEOI found no indication that the additional check produced measurable security benefits. None of the five counties reported referring possible absentee ballot fraud to law enforcement in 2025, matching recent election cycles and prompting the group to question whether the rule adds value beyond existing signature verification. The initiative also criticized uneven voter education around the change, noting that some counties relied mainly on social media while others used ballot inserts, new envelope designs or standalone mailers. The nonprofit encouraged the Secretary of State to lead coordinated, statewide messaging ahead of anticipated higher turnout in 2026.

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