A Montana trial court granted a preliminary injunction today in a set of consolidated cases challenging a number of suppressive laws passed late in the 2021 Montana legislative session (Montana Democratic Party v. Jacobsen; Western Native Voice v. Jacobsen; and Montana Youth Action v. Jacobsen).  The case brought by the ACLU of Montana, ACLU, Native American Rights Fund, and the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School challenges the repeal of Election Day Registration and a ban of absentee ballot return assistance on multiple state constitutional grounds on behalf of two organizations that support voting rights for Native voters and four Native American tribes.  Cases on behalf of the Montana Democratic Party and Montana Youth Action also challenged new voter ID restrictions and limitations of the use of absentee voting for voters who turn 18 in the month preceding Election Day. 

The Court found that the Plaintiffs in the consolidated cases had made the necessary showing for preliminary relief on multiple state constitutional grounds.  The enactments and the lawsuits came on the heels of a similar ban on absentee ballot assistance that the Montana Democratic Party and Western Native Voice Plaintiffs challenged and saw struck down after two separate trials in 2020. 

The Western Native Voice Plaintiffs demonstrated the disparate impact of these new laws on Native voters living on reservations in Montana, a group that already faces substantial barriers to accessing the vote.