Don't like who owns Timmy? This is the answer.

Yellowstone County says nearly 1,000 ballots rejected because of new law

Even as election officials throughout the state reminded residents last month of changes to Montana’s election laws and how ballots should be marked, Montana’s largest county, Yellowstone, said that it is working with nearly 1,000 residents to fix rejected ballots before the school board elections on May 5.

On Monday afternoon, Yellowstone County Elections Administrator Dayna Causby said that 960 ballots had been rejected largely because most failed to include the elector’s birth year, which is now required by state law.

That new requirement caused a higher percentage of Montana ballots to be rejected in 2025, but election officials are worried because there are several different elections in 2026, including primaries in June as well as the general election in November. 

Causby reported:

“The Election Office is reporting a 4.38% rejection rate on returned ballots, with more than 95% of those rejections due to a single issue: Voters did not include their birth year on the signature envelope. The office is contacting all 960 affected voters by mail, and phone/email if available and is urging them to correct their signature envelopes before the deadline.”

House Bill 719 was introduced by Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, as a way to add security measures to the ballots. The law now requires Montana voters to add their birth year. The law went into effect for the 2025 elections, which in Montana, usually are municipal elections. 

During those elections, thousands of ballots statewide were rejected due to voters failing to write in their birth year on envelopes who did not respond to calls, mailed or emailed notices about the errors from their local election departments.

In Yellowstone County, election administrators told the Daily Montanan the rejection rate was nearly 4.5% initially, and after more than 800 ballots were resolved by voters it dropped to 2.03%. However, that was more than double the previous municipal election rate in 2023 of 0.78%.

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This 2024 attack ad from Busse is troubling. Using workers of color as political pawns to score points with certain voters is a divisive tactic — and the fact that he pulled the ad suggests even his campaign recognized it crossed a line.

August 8, 2024

On Monday, Democratic contender for governor Ryan Busse fired off his campaign’s latest attack against Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte — one undermined by a glaring factual omission.

In a video posted to social media, Busse accused Gianforte of being a “hypocrite” for hiring “migrant workers” to repair the roof on his recently purchased Helena mansion around the same time that he sent Montana National Guard troops to the country’s southern border with Mexico as part of Texas’ border security operations.

The video included clips of the roofers, shot from the neighborhood sidewalk, overlayed with fragments of audio from an unidentified male voice saying “from Columbia” and “from Mexico.” Nowhere in the accompanying press release or video does Busse offer any evidence that the roofers are either immigrants or undocumented, as is strongly implied.

Asked about the ad’s implication, Busse campaign manager Aaron Murphy later told MTFP the “onus is on Gianforte” to prove that the roofers — who were hired by a local contracting company, not by the governor, according to Gianforte’s campaign — were authorized to work in the U.S.

“If the governor himself cannot prove that, which should be easy to do in consultation with the company he hired, then we all should presume they were undocumented,” Murphy said. He later said he did not regard his comment as encouraging racial profiling. 

Asked if Gianforte knew whether the contractor asked the workers for proof of their status to work in the U.S., Gianforte campaign spokesperson Anna Marian Block said Wednesday that the governor “trusts the contractor did his due diligence to comply with the law” and struck back at Busse for the allegation.

“Gov. Gianforte did not hire illegal immigrants. Ryan Busse is an unhinged hypocrite who will say and do anything to get elected,” Block said.

Immigration law puts the responsibility for verifying worker authorization on their employer, not the homeowner or business where work is being conducted, said Montana-based immigration attorney Shahid Haque. 

In this instance, Haque said, there was “literally nothing suspect” about the work crew depicted in the campaign video. Busse’s attack, he continued, “may even be defamatory” by presenting the roofers as undocumented when they may not be. 

“In this attack, Busse is taking a page from the Republicans’ anti-immigrant playbook and stoking overblown fears,” Haque said. “Democrats used to be the party of immigration reform and welcoming new immigrants. They are now engaged in the same cynical tactic of getting votes by making people afraid of their Spanish-speaking neighbors.”

—Mara Silvers

https://montanafreepress.org/2024/08/09/trump-to-stump-for-sheehy-in-bozeman-2/

Well, at least they mentioned the allegations…

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/us/politics/seth-bodnar-montana-senate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dFA.3iak.VSH_5a4zSDOK&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Pretty crazy that there has been no discussion of the montana first district Republican primary debate in the montana politics subreddit. Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Interesting that Jacobson didn’t come at all.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DwQk9XinN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://dailymontanan.com/2026/04/22/flint-sells-populist-view-during-gop-debate-olszewski-says-federal-government-the-issue/

Interesting read. Looks like there are some trying to stomp out shady groups.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/04/montana-democrats-intrigue-bodnar/686852/

Nothing says looking out for the little guy like campaigning at Big Sky. I'm glad Ryan has the courage to give a voice to the downtrodden living at Big Sky.

https://www.explorebigsky.com/ryan-busse-visits-big-sky-in-campaign-for-montanas-first-congressional-district/170365

Someone please help me understand this. I looked at the FEC quarterly filings for the first time and I do see that there are a handful of shady people who donated to his campaign (large hedge fund CEOS) does this inherently mean Forstag is shady? I wanted to believe in him and support him but that seems to go against everything he says he stands for. Cleveland seems promising— do we think he has a shot?

EDIT: I should not have used the term “dark money” — that is my bad! I realize haphazardly throwing terms like it is careless and regret using it. Dark Money means the donors are not disclosed. Clearly all the donor info is disclosed in the donor receipts link. As far as I know Sam Forstag is NOT taking “dark money”

My intent was to start a discourse around the donors that I think read as potentially shady )big tech, hedge fund etc) and political donations in general. If I’m seeing anything online it’s that the waters around the topic are muddy.

I am not claiming to be an expert here and I realize there is a LOT of nuance. As I said, I like everything Forstag is saying, but I haven’t seen any statements from him when he’s asked about these donors (granted this is all recently published).

“Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination,” and is subject to strict scrutiny under the Montana Constitution.

​

Montana might be a red state but Tester did very well in 2024 and the republican turn out in midterms is by all accounts going to be lower than 24.

I think we all agree that the dem candidate winning outright isn't possible. why not drop out and endorse Bodnar then ? He is a highly educated smart candidate and would make a good senator.

I heard a bunch of 2nd/3rd hand gossip from my mom over the weekend, but am curious what is actually true. Something about the Madison county commissioner being friends with JD Vance and helping get all the business contracts in Virginia City cancelled and given to big out-of-state companies? They want to turn Virginia City into some kind of extension of Big Sky or something? Just curious if anyone has heard anything.

According to Sheehy's Chief of Staff Mike Berg, the senator was engaged in a routine flight training exercise, which he completes twice a year.

https://www.kbzk.com/news/montana-news/engine-failure-forces-sheehy-emergency-landing

If you haven’t watched the documentary called Dark Money, it’s dang interesting. Montana has a history of corporations (copper kings) buying elections. After that happened, we passed laws to prevent it from happening again. However the Fed is overriding our state.

I’m all ears and wouldn’t mind learning more about this, if you have a different perspective (or a more informed perspective). From what I’ve learned so far is that Montana stopped dark money before… so we should be able to do it again!

Here’s a link to dark money - it’s worth watching:

https://youtu.be/Cq1OXhm7UeE?si=4KtENELCnSNBgZQL

We've cut scientific research and studies advancing our technological progress in the U.S.A., outside of defense. Brain drain makes sense for Canada as a recipient, but what other countries are going to expect our best and brightest?

I'm completely baffled by what is going on in the GOP right now. All of these is obviously toxic. I live in the deepest of red Montana and they aren't blaming shit on Biden anymore. They may hate democrats but they're not stupid. So what gives? I know that our state GOP know they got us wrapped. They're trying to auction off public lands. That's going to be our fight. But is the national party that whipped? Do they know something nobody else does?

The challenge to CI-194) has been struck down.

If you want dark money out of politics in Montana, now is your chance. Sign the petition to get CI-194 on the ballot.

Let's go!

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1sahkpg/robert_reich_montana_has_a_plan_to_effectively/

0.6 miles of road on both sides completely packed.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5803536-montana-libertarian-candidate-graham-draft/