During the 2021 legislative session, the Montana state legislature passed a cocktail of laws burdening Montanans' right of suffrage. Three youth civic engagement organizations--Montana Youth Action, Forward Montana Foundation, and the Montana Public Interest Research Group (MontPIRG)--have brought this lawsuit to challenge three of those laws, recognizing that the cumulative effect of burdensome voting laws falls with particular weight on young voters. The three laws challenged here include Senate Bill 169, which downgrades student ID to a second-class form of voter ID, Section 2 of House Bill 506, which prohibits ballot distribution to voters who will but do not yet meet age- and residency-based voter registration criteria, and House Bill 176, which eliminates election day voter registration. Together and separately, these laws unconstitutionally burden Montanans’ fundamental right to vote, subverting the will of Montana voters and upending norms that Montana voters have come to rely on. This case has been consolidated with two others that challenge two of the same laws, as well as House Bill 530, which prohibits paid ballot collection and likewise burdens Montanans' right of suffrage.

On April 6, 2022, the court granted Plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction. On May 17, 2022, the Montana Supreme Court granted the State's motion for a stay of the injunction as to two of the four enjoined laws. As a result, Election Day registration is unavailable for the June 2022 primary election—voters need to be registered before noon on June 6, 2022—and the ID requirements align with the law passed in 2021. That is, voters must show either a primary ID form or two secondary forms of ID.

Trial is set for August 15, 2022.