Ballot initiative mechanics in Montana
How ballot initiatives work covers the four mechanisms nationally. This page covers Montana's specific numbers and deadlines. Montana allows citizens to propose both statutes and constitutional amendments by petition, plus veto referendums, entirely outside the legislature.
Montana's process
Before anyone can gather a signature, a proposed measure must clear the Legislative Services Division and pass an Attorney General legal sufficiency review. Only then can the Secretary of State approve it for circulation. Every threshold is calculated as a percentage of the total votes cast for governor in Montana's most recent gubernatorial election, so the required number resets after each governor's race, and each threshold also requires a set share of signatures from a minimum number of the state's 100 legislative House districts, not just a statewide total.
Montana does not apply a strict single-subject rule to citizen initiatives the way it does to legislative bills. Instead, its Constitution requires a "separate-vote" rule: when multiple amendments appear on one ballot, each must be presented so voters can vote on it separately. A 2025 law, HB 201, added new disclosure duties for paid signature gatherers, who must now state their name, home state, and paid status aloud and on a visible badge, or those signatures can be thrown out.
Deadlines and numbers
- Statutory initiative (I-): 5% of qualified electors statewide (30,121 signatures for 2026), including 5% in each of at least 34 House districts
- Constitutional initiative (CI-): 10% of qualified electors statewide (60,241 signatures for 2026), including 10% in each of at least 40 House districts
- Veto referendum: 15% of qualified electors statewide (90,361 signatures for 2026), including 15% in each of at least 51 House districts
- Constitutional initiative filing fee: $3,700, nonrefundable
- 2026 deadline to submit signatures to county clerks: June 19, 2026
- 2026 deadline for counties to certify and forward to the Secretary of State: July 17, 2026
Where to go
- Secretary of State, Ballot Issues: sosmt.gov/elections/ballot_issues
- Proposed 2026 measures and status: sosmt.gov/elections/ballot_issues/proposed-2026-ballot-issues
- Montana Code Annotated, Title 13, Chapter 27: leg.mt.gov/bills/mca
Rules
Montana runs three separate citizen petition tracks: statutory initiatives, constitutional initiatives, and veto referendums, each with its own signature threshold pegged to the last governor's race and its own geographic spread requirement across the state's 100 House districts. That spread requirement matters as much as the raw signature count. It stops a petition from qualifying on strength in Missoula and Bozeman alone. Sponsors have to build support across dozens of districts statewide.
A 2025 law added transparency rules for paid circulators, who now have to identify themselves and their paid status to every potential signer, both verbally and on a badge. If a qualified constitutional initiative reaches the ballot and voters reject it, the same or a similar measure can't be tried again for four years. That's a real cost to failing at the ballot box, not just to failing to qualify.
Two details are not fully nailed down. The filing fee confirmed here, $3,700, is specifically for constitutional initiatives. Whether statutory initiatives carry a separate, lower fee wasn't confirmed in this research pass. If you're planning a statutory initiative rather than a constitutional one, verify the fee directly with the Secretary of State's office or Title 13, Chapter 27 before budgeting. For anything Montana-specific this page doesn't answer, route to /engage.