Micah Drew

(Daily Montanan) Attorney General Austin Knudsen has approved a second ballot initiative seeking to enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections into the Montana Constitution but has rewritten the language of the initiative, despite a lawsuit challenging a similar rewrite just weeks ago.

Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts is one of two committees bringing ballot initiatives forward for the 2026 election related to judicial elections, submitting two propositions to voters.

Both groups seek to keep judicial races in the state nonpartisan, as they have been required by state law since 1935. During the 2025 Legislature, Republican lawmakers made multiple attempts to make the state’s judicial elections into a partisan affair, saying they believe courts are already politicized and the

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