With the stroke of a pen, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte could make Montana the next state to outlaw the use of ranked-choice voting and outside private money in elections. But when The Federalist asked his office whether he intends to sign these two important bills that have been sent to his desk, they did not respond.
On Monday, the Montana Legislature sent SB 117 — which mandates that “[a]ll costs and expenses relating to conducting elections must be paid for with public funds” — to Gianforte’s desk for signature. If signed into law, the bill would make Montana the 25th state to ban or restrict the use of private money in the conduction of elections. The measure previously passed the state House (64-31) and Senate (34-14) with overwhelming support.
During the 2020 election, nonprofits such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) received hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. These “Zuckbucks” were poured into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered, such as by expanding unsupervised election protocols like mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes. To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed toward Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive, privately-funded Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.
Montana received nearly $2.1 million from CTCL over the course of the 2020 election.
While a Senate bill banning the use of “Zuckbucks” was introduced during Montana’s 2021 legislative session, the measure died before it could be transmitted to
