National Newswatch | Abortion rights advocates say they’ve had enough of…

County election officials have verified 74,186 voter signatures, more than the 60,359 needed to put the constitutional initiative before voters. It also passed the 10% voter threshold in 51 precincts — more than the required 40 precincts, according to Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights.

“We are proud to have passed the threshold for valid signatures and House district to qualify this important initiative for a ballot,” said Kiersten Iwai, executive director of Forward Montana and spokesperson for Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, in a statement.

It remains to be seen whether the signatures of inactive voters should be included in the total.

The Montana Secretary of State said they shouldn’t do that, but didn’t make that statement until after the signatures had been collected and some counties had begun verifying them.

A judge in Helena ruled Tuesday that the qualifications should not have been changed mid-vote and said the signatures of inactive voters who were rejected must 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 ruling, but that has no effect on the initiative’s ballot.

“We will not stop fighting to ensure that every Montana voter who signed this petition has their signature counted,” Iwai said. “The Secretary of State and Attorney General have shown no shame in pulling new regulations 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 count the petitions and may reject any that do not meet legal requirements. Jacobsen must certify the ballots for the general election by Aug. 22.

The question of whether abortion was legal was returned to the states when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that the state’s 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 the right to an abortion. Courts have blocked several of the bills, but no legal challenges have been filed against the law seeking to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1999 ruling.

Montanans for Election Reform, which also challenged the rule change on the basis of petition signatures, said it believes it has enough signatures to ask voters whether they want to amend the state constitution to hold open primaries instead of partisan elections. They also want candidates to receive a majority of the vote to win the general election.