As a conservative, I have deep respect for both the United States and the Montana Constitutions—not just as historical documents, but as the supreme law of the land. Their authority has guided our Republic and our state for more than two centuries, and its principles continue to light the path forward. Our current Montana Constitution has done the same for the past 50 years.

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The US Constitution is precise. That includes the 14th Amendment, which defines citizenship: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  The Trump administration is pursuing a case currently to clarify that children born in the US to people who arrived here in violation of our laws are not US citizens.

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The Montana Constitution gives us authority and the tools to protect the sanctity of our elections. What we need is accountability: accurate voter rolls, secure election systems, and strong verification processes. These are practical, constitutional steps that protect citizen-only voting, all of which I supported.

 

Concerns about non-citizens voting are legitimate—and shared by many across Montana.  The Montana Constitution in Article IV, Section 2, already defines qualified electors, “Any citizen of the United States 18 year of age or older who meets the registration and residence requirements provided by law is a qualified elector…”

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The Constitutional Amendment proposed in SB185 was to change one word in Article IV, Section 2, the word “ANY” to the word “ONLY.”  It reiterates a standard that is already embedded in federal law and Montana law. It’s redundant—and redundancy is not reform. I got no satisfactory argument for making this change.

 

I went to serve in Helena to address skyrocketing property taxes, the rising cost of living, and the need for better education in our state, not to support amendments to our state Constitution that are meant to garner headlines.

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Let’s be clear: non-citizen voting is a problem—but we already have the Constitution on our side. It’s time we enforced it, not repackaged it for political points.