"It's Our Last Backstop": How Voting Access in Montana Rides on Supreme Court Races

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Dirk Sandefur is one of two justices who are retiring from the Montana state supreme court (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File)


Montana Republicans have been trying to make voting harder, but they’ve hit a wall at the state supreme court.

This high court leans liberal in a state that has otherwise grown quite conservative, and so it’s been a regular thorn in the side of GOP politicians as they’ve tried to advance their agenda. That’s been true on voting issues, but also on guns, abortion, trans rights, and more.

This year, two justices who have drawn Democratic support in the past—including the chief justice, who authored a decision national liberals cheered a decade ago for its defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling—have chosen to retire rather than seek a new term. And conservatives see this as a major opportunity to reshape the court in their favor.

The court is ostensibly nonpartisan and the retiring justices have not always aligned, including on voting rights matters, but conservative victories in the contests to fill their two seats could boost the right’s interests in a venue that has long frustrated them. Under the shadow of Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester’s difficult reelection bid, these races test whether Montanans, who’ve voted in Republicans to run the legislative and executive branches, and are likely to do so again this fall, maintain any appetite for counterbalance.

The stakes for election administration are especially high, with Montana Republicans having already aimed for a string of restrictions that, but for the court, would be in law today.

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