Montanans Decide, the committee sponsoring Constitutional Initiative 133, filed more than 100,000 signatures with county officials on June 18. Constitutional Initiative 133 would add the initiative and referendum power to the state's Declaration of Rights (Article II). It would provide that the "right guarantees impartial, predictable, transparent, and expeditious processes for proposing a ballot issue, qualifying a ballot issue for the ballot, and submitting a ballot issue to the qualified electors without interference from the government or the use of government resources to support or oppose the ballot issue."
The initiative provides that filing the full text and ballot summary; receiving a determination of legal sufficiency before being cleared for signature gathering; verifying signatures and petitions without the invalidation of a signature or petition due to a technical or minor deficiency; and resolving legal challenges to ballot issues prior to the deadline for finalizing ballots are all included in the right of initiative petitions. It would also provide a right to withdraw one’s signature from a petition as long as it's withdrawn before the deadline for submitting petitions. Six states — California, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington — allow individuals who have signed a ballot initiative petition to later withdraw their signatures.
Montana authorized the initiative and referendum power by approving a constitutional amendment in 1906. Montana was the fifth state to adopt a ballot initiative process. Currently, Articles III, IV, and XIV of the Montana Constitution govern the initiative process in the state.
SK Rossi, the campaign manager for Montanans Decide, said, “I think that it's a nonpartisan issue. The ballot initiative process is for everyone. Folks across the political spectrum use it. This year they attempted to get a property tax initiative placed on the ballot and weren't able to do so because the process has become so cumbersome and the timeline for gathering signatures has become so short.”
To qualify an initiated state statute in Montana, petitioners need to collect signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election (60,241 signatures). Montana also has a distribution requirement that requires proponents to collect signatures equal to 10% of the qualified electors in each of two-fifths (40) of the state's 100 legislative districts. The deadline to submit signatures to county clerks was June 19. The deadline to submit signatures to the secretary of state is July 17.
For the 2026 election cycle, 12 ballot initiatives were filed in Montana. Two other campaigns submitted signatures by the deadline. Constitutional Initiative 132 would add a new section to the Montana Constitution stating that “Judicial elections shall remain nonpartisan.” Judicial elections are currently nonpartisan in the state. By adding the requirement to the state constitution, changing judicial elections would require another vote by the electorate. Initiative 194 would prohibit nonprofits, trusts, partnerships, corporations, trade associations, or unincorporated associations, and all entities doing business in Montana from contributing to campaigns, ballot measure elections, or political parties. The initiative classifies these entities as artificial persons and prohibits them from political spending. Violations of the law would result in forfeiting all privileges to do business in Montana.
In Montana, an average of 21 initiatives were filed each even-year cycle between 2010 and 2024, with an average of two initiatives certified for the ballot each cycle.
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