Voting is an essential part of any democracy, and part of the voting process is ensuring that voter rolls are accurate. Voter rolls are constantly changing for many reasons — as new voters register, existing registrants move, change their name, pass away or, for some other reason, become ineligible.

Voter rolls are maintained by local and state governments. Currently in Montana, only obituaries in newspapers can be used to change a voter record.

Recently, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and Elections Director/Chief Legal Counsel Austin James invited the MFDA Board to the Capitol to discuss and brainstorm ways to improve the state’s legal process for administering deceased voters.

The secretary hopes to add obituaries published by a Montana funeral home to the list of ways that can be used to change voter records. Additionally, MFDA members and the secretary explored ways to improve the data process involving the states’ vital statistics.

It was a fantastic meeting, and we look forward to future discussions with the partnership.