Montanans sue to stop partisan gerrymander
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News from Montana Conservation Voters
HELENA — On Oct. 30, 2023, the nonprofit organization Montana Conservation Voters (“MCV”) and a group of individual Montanans challenged the Public Service Commission (“PSC”) district map, which the legislature drew to ensure Republican control of all five PSC commissioner seats.
The lawsuit marks the second legal challenge to the PSC map in two years. After the legislature failed to redistrict the map for nearly two decades, a federal court drew a new map in 2022 to account for population shifts. As initially drafted, Senate Bill 109 (“SB 109”) would have codified the court-drawn map and required regular redistricting. However, late in the legislative session, SB 109 was amended to ensure no party, but the GOP could win any of the five commissioner seats.
The resulting map is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and a radical break from districting norms. The new map cracks six of Montana’s seven major urban cores in two and effectively election-proofs PSC races. Legislators continually denied that they gerrymandered the map, but that is impossible—all redistricting software provides statistics about partisanship, and the politicians responsible for the map could not have avoided knowing what they were doing. Because it purposefully disenfranchises voters on the grounds of partisanship, SB 109 violates the Montana Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and the right of suffrage.
“Energy policy matters for conservation, and conservation is not a partisan issue. Montana Conservation Voters proudly supports pro-conservation candidates, no matter whether they have an R or a D after their name,” said Whitney Tawney, Montana Conservation Voters’ Executive Director. “But if our elections aren’t fair and competitive, our PSC commissioners won’t be listening to us when we tell them what matters to us, whether it’s conservation or our pocketbooks.”
“The PSC needs to stand up for Montanans against the monopolies it is supposed to regulate,” said Joseph Lafromboise, a Chippewa Cree tribal member who lives in PSC District 1. “Tribal members are especially likely to be left in the cold if politicians aren’t even trying to represent all of their constituents.”
“SB 109 is an attack on democracy,” said Constance Van Kley, attorney for the plaintiffs. “We need elected officials to compete for the votes of all constituents, and that only happens when elections aren’t predetermined by partisanship.”
