The Montana Plan Set to Qualify for November Ballot

HELENA, Mont. — The Transparent Election Initiative announced Tuesday that The Montana Plan, Initiative 194, is set to qualify for the November ballot after an all-volunteer campaign collected nearly 50,000 signatures from voters in all 56 Montana counties in just 13 weeks — far surpassing Montana’s 30,121-signature statewide qualification threshold.
To qualify for the ballot, I-194 must receive 30,121 verified signatures statewide and meet Montana’s geographic distribution requirement by collecting signatures equal to at least 5% of the vote cast for governor in 34 state House districts. As of Wednesday, June 10, the Montana Secretary of State had verified 34,906 of the 37,475 signatures processed to date — already exceeding the statewide threshold — with approximately 10,000 additional signatures still awaiting review. The campaign is confident it has also met the geographic district requirement.
In an unprecedented feat in recent Montana history, The Montana Plan qualified the old-fashioned way: with volunteers. At a time when major ballot initiative campaigns rely heavily on paid signature-gathering operations, not a single person who collected a signature for The Montana Plan was paid to do so. Every signature was gathered by a Montanan who felt compelled to spend weekends and afternoons — rain or shine — talking with neighbors about the need to protect democracy from corporate and dark money influence.
The campaign was powered by more than 500 volunteer signature gatherers across the state and sustained by more than 40 community leads, who helped organize local and regional events and teams ranging from small groups of three to networks of more than 100 signature gatherers.
“This campaign has been powered by Montanans from the very beginning,” said Jeff Mangan, founder of the Transparent Election Initiative. “To the out-of-state corporate and special interests trying to spread disinformation about who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish: look at the power of this volunteer army. More than 500 Montanans gathered signatures in all 56 counties, without a single paid signature gatherer, and blew past the 30,121 signatures needed to qualify. That is what grassroots democracy looks like.”