Current:Home > MarketsAbortion rights supporters report having enough signatures to qualify for Montana ballot -WealthGrow Network
Abortion rights supporters report having enough signatures to qualify for Montana ballot
View
Date:2025-04-17 13:49:47
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — An initiative to ask voters if they want to protect the right to a pre-viability abortion in Montana’s constitution has enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, supporters said Friday.
County election officials have verified 74,186 voter signatures, more than the 60,359 needed for the constitutional initiative to go before voters. It has also met the threshold of 10% of voters in 51 House Districts — more than the required 40 districts, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights said.
“We’re excited to have met the valid signature threshold and the House District threshold required to qualify this critical initiative for the ballot,” Kiersten Iwai, executive director of Forward Montana and spokesperson for Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights said in a statement.
Still pending is whether the signatures of inactive voters should count toward the total.
Montana’s secretary of state said they shouldn’t, but it didn’t make that statement until after the signatures were gathered and after some counties had begun verifying them.
A Helena judge ruled Tuesday that the qualifications shouldn’t have been changed midstream and said the signatures of inactive voters that had been rejected should be verified and counted. District Judge Mike Menahan said those signatures could be accepted through next Wednesday.
The state has asked the Montana Supreme Court to overturn Menahan’s order, but it will have no effect on the initiative qualifying for the ballot.
“We will not stop fighting to ensure that every Montana voter who signed the petition has their signature counted,” Iwai said. “The Secretary of State and Attorney General have shown no shame in pulling new rules out of thin air, all to thwart the will of Montana voters and serve their own political agendas.”
Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen must review and tabulate the petitions and is allowed to reject any petition that does not meet statutory requirements. Jacobsen must certify the general election ballots by Aug. 22.
The issue of whether abortion was legal was turned back to the states when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Montana’s Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that the state constitutional right to privacy protects the right to a pre-viability abortion. But the Republican controlled Legislature passed several bills in 2023 to restrict abortion access, including one that says the constitutional right to privacy does not protect abortion rights. Courts have blocked several of the laws, but no legal challenges have been filed against the one that tries to overturn the 1999 Supreme Court ruling.
Montanans for Election Reform, which also challenged the rule change over petition signatures, has said they believe they have enough signatures to ask voters if they want to amend the state constitution to hold open primary elections, rather than partisan ones, and to require candidates to win a majority of the vote in order to win a general election.
veryGood! (84)
Related
- Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
- Justice Department launches civil rights probes into South Carolina jails after at least 14 inmate deaths
- Florida man faces charges after pregnant woman is stabbed, hit with cooking pan, police say
- Officer who shot Breonna Taylor says fellow officer fired ‘haphazardly’ into apartment during raid
- Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
- North Korea is closing some diplomatic missions in what may be a sign of its economic troubles
- Toddler critically injured in accidental shooting after suspect discards gun on daycare playground
- Nepal scrambles to rescue survivors of a quake that shook its northwest and killed at least 128
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Biden administration awards $653 million in grants for 41 projects to upgrade ports
Ranking
- The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
- Kansas day care worker caught on video hitting children is sentenced to 10 years in prison
- Search for story in Rhode Island leads to 25-year-old Rolex-certified watchmaker with a passion for his craft
- Troops kill 3 militants, foiling attack on an airbase in Punjab province, Pakistani military says
- Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
- Riley Keough Debuts Jet-Black Hair in Dramatic Transformation
- Winds from Storm Ciarán whip up a wildfire in eastern Spain as 850 people are evacuated
- Elwood Jones closer to freedom as Ohio makes last-ditch effort to revive murder case
Recommendation
Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
How a signature pen has been changing lives for 5 decades
Israel’s fortified underground blood bank processes unprecedented amounts as troops move into Gaza
The Gilded Age and the trouble with American period pieces
Macy's says employee who allegedly hid $150 million in expenses had no major 'impact'
U.S. economy added 150,000 jobs in October as hiring slows
Oregon must get criminal defendants attorneys within 7 days or release them from jail, judge says
Judge says ex-UCLA gynecologist can be retried on charges of sexually abusing female patients