HELENA — When former President Donald Trump held a rally in Bozeman earlier this month, he alluded to a theme he’s often spoken about: skepticism about absentee ballots.
“You ever hear things like this: ‘You vote two months early’ and ‘You need more time’ – we want to go back to one-day voting and paper ballots,” he said. “Very simple, very simple.”
But at the same time, posters and message boards around the event encouraged attendees to request mail ballots or vote early in person.
“We would like to see it be just Election Day – go back to the old ways where the absentee voter was only the person that was on vacation or in the military or what have you, and have paper ballots and hand count,” said “Don K” Kaltschmidt, chair of the Montana Republican Party. “But the law here in Montana is the law, we're going to follow the law, and we believe we have to use the cards that have been dealt to us.”
Republicans have seen strong success in recent Montana elections, and Kaltschmidt said, if that’s to continue, turnout will be key.
“Obviously, we believe that there's more Republicans in the state of Montana than there is Democrats, and we believe that if our voters get out, we'll be victorious this fall,” he said.
He said the party has made contact with several hundred thousand voters across the state, including about 30,000 who didn’t vote in 2022 but did in 2020. One of their messages has been encouraging voters to cast a ballot early.
“Get your vote in and make sure it's handled,” he said. “On Election Day, if something comes up in your life and you can't vote, you may regret that you didn't get to do that.”
That message has also appeared in voters’ mailboxes, online advertising and text messages from the Sentinel Action Fund, a conservative super PAC. The group is backing Republican Tim Sheehy in his challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester – one of four GOP Senate candidates they’ve endorsed.
Jessica Anderson, president of Sentinel Action Fund, said they are aiming to reach low-propensity voters.
“These are registered Republicans who are not habitual voters, so they've maybe voted one, maybe two times over the last four cycles,” she said. “And the lowest barrier to entry, or the easiest way for them to vote, is through absentee or early vote.”
Anderson said the Republican voters they’re reaching out to may have some lingering mistrust of the absentee process, but that they’ve been able to alleviate those concerns by making points about the convenience of early voting, the fact that military members vote by mail and the idea that GOP supporters with concerns about the integrity of elections should make Republican vote totals “too big to rig.”
In recent election cycles, more than 80% of Montana votes have come from absentee ballots. In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, the primary was conducted entirely by mail, and the general election was almost entirely mail-ballot.
During the 2020 election, the Trump campaign and state Republicans sued over the order from then-Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, that allowed counties to use all-mail ballots. Courts allowed the order to stand, and Republicans still went on to sweep all statewide elections and gain seats in the Montana Legislature.
Kaltschmidt said he expects both the Republicans and Democrats to do a good job turning out voters this year.
“I think we all know that Jon Tester is a very, very good campaigner,” he said. “We know that he's won three times, and we're not going to take anything for granted. So we're going to sprint to the finish line here.”
On Friday, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign will be holding a “Protect the Vote” event in Great Falls, with RNC Chairman Michael Whatley in attendance. They’ll train voters to serve as poll watchers during the general election.
