Montana Republicans achieved unified control of the state government in 2020 by winning the governors race for the first time in 16 years. This allowed them to follow through on a longtime goal: making it harder for students and young people to vote.

This year, four bills were passed by the state legislature and signed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) that make it harder for students to register to vote, cast their ballots and register other students to vote. The bills ended Election Day voter registration, removed student ID as an acceptable form of voter ID, placed additional age and residency requirements on voters and banned voter registration efforts by political committees in certain university buildings.

The restrictive voting legislation in Montana comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden by lying about election fraud. Inspired by these lies, Republicans in several states have enacted new restrictions on voting, specifically targeted at communities they believe are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates. In some states these restrictions have targeted Black and Latino voters. In Montana, the communities targeted included students and Native Americans.

Montana Republicans are targeting students, young voters and Native Americans because these communities have helped Democrats narrowly win statewide elections over the past 15 years despite the states strong partisan lean in favor of Republicans at the national level. Sen. Jon Tester, now Montanas only statewide elected Democrat, won his three elections by between 3,000 and 18,000 votes. Former Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, won his two campaigns by 8,000 votes in 2012 and 19,000 in 2016. Tester is up for reelection in 2024.

State Republicans claim their new election restrictions are meant to enhance election integrity. But just like Trumps election fraud lies, the new laws respond to no record of fraud or malfeasance in state elections. When a Montana state court ruled against Trumps effort to block Montana counties from implementing mail voting in 2020, it noted that there is no record of election fraud in Montanas recent history.

Montana youth groups are assailing the new laws as a cocktail of voter suppression measures that land heavily on the young, according to a lawsuit filed in October by Forward Montana Foundation, Montana Youth Action and MontPIRG, a voter registration nonprofit.

When you look at each of these individually, alone, they look like they could be targeting students, said Scout McMahon, a 17-year-old high school senior in Kalispell, Montana, and initiatives chair for Montana Youth Action. But when you put them all together you have the age discrimination, the residency discrimination, changing specifically student ID while also introducing another form and eliminating Election Day registration. Its a pretty express attack against student voters and youth voters as a whole.