Montana Supreme Court rewords ballot language for Transparent Election Initiative

The Montana Supreme Court unanimously approved new language for a proposed ballot initiative which aims to halt corporate contributions to political candidates.

Attorney General Austin Knudsen rewrote the ballot language of the proposal, which is backed by the Transparent Election Initiative. He had previously tried to strike other ballot language as legally deficient. 

The court approved the new language after Knudsen argued the Transparent Election Initiative’s wording could mislead voters into thinking that only “corporations” were affected by the proposal, when in fact, it could mean other types of entities, like nonprofits. 

Meanwhile, backers of the initiative argued that Knudsen’s specific concerns about the ballot language didn’t allow his office to rewrite the entire ballot description.

However, the Supreme Court said nothing in state law prevents the attorney general from rewriting a ballot statement if he finds it deficient. Instead, the court’s opinion, written by Justice James Jeremiah Shea, said that the statement must provide “a true and impartial explanation in plain, easily understood language and may not be argumentative or written so as to create prejudice for or against the issue.”

The Supreme Court did find one passage in Knudsen’s proposed ballot statement to be “argumentative, adding nothing expositive,” and struck it. That sentence stated, “Artificial persons would not have any other powers under the Montana Constitution.” 

The court then certified the ballot language as: