A mass-mailed postcard sent by Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen embodies conservative Republicans’ crusade to root out illegal voters in Montana’s upcoming midterm election. But election experts say that non-citizen voting isn’t an active problem in Montana, and a Democrat said the postcard is political fearmongering with an unclear source of funding.
A representative for the Secretary of State’s Office did not respond to a request from Montana Free Press for this story, including inquiries about how many households received the mailer, which lists the Secretary of State’s post office box as its return address. The mailer uses the same postage permit number as the one listed on templates provided by the state Department of Administration’s State Print and Mail division. In response to questions, Richie Melby, a spokesperson for Jacobsen, instead sent MTFP content from a press release about new election security measures.
The blue postcard features a photo of Jacobsen and President Donald Trump with a red banner featuring white text that reads “ONLY CITIZENS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO VOTE.” The rest of the postcard introduces an election security program Montana will “soon implement” designed to verify voters’ immigration status and ensure only citizens vote in U.S. elections. A footer at the bottom reads, “under Secretary Jacobsen’s leadership, non-citizen voting will not be tolerated.”
Non-citizens are already banned from voting in Montana by state law.
Montana Free Press asked Jeff Mangan, former state Commissioner of Political Practices and current board member of the Montana Election Observation Initiative, whether non-citizen voting is an active problem in Montana.
“It isn’t,” Mangan said in a Tuesday interview.
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Mangan’s group, which studied the topic, did not find evidence of non-citizen voting in the 2024 general elections or the 2025 local elections.
Sarah Cooper at The Carter Center, an international, nongovernmental, nonpartisan democracy support organization that sponsors the Montana Election Observation Initiative, called non-citizen voting “a pretty rare occurrence” in the United States.
“This has become a big national narrative over past election cycles. And a number of states have done reviews and audits of their voter lists to try to get at that concern. Do they have non-citizens registered? Is that a real challenge?” Cooper said in a Tuesday interview. “And I think what’s really important to note is that these reviews have found that the actual incidents of non-citizens being registered to vote is extremely rare.”
The Montana Secretary of State announced in the Jan. 12 press release that a new tool offered through a federal partnership called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, flagged 23 Montana voters as potential non-citizens. The Secretary of State’s Office tallied 784,949 registered voters in Montana as of Wednesday evening, meaning those flagged make up about 0.003% of registered voters.
In November, Montana’s Secretary of State began assessing federal citizenship data and immigration status to address non-citizen voting. The exact nature of the information exchange between Montana and the federal government remains murky. The Montana Secretary of State did not respond to additional questions about SAVE or data sharing with federal agencies.
Rep. Kelly Kortum, D-Bozeman, called the mailer “garbage rhetoric” in an interview with MTFP.
“That’s just what they’ve learned how to do from the president and they’re just going to tell lies about things to get votes,” Kortum said.
Kortum also raised concerns over who paid for the mailer. In a Jan. 12 interim legislative committee meeting, Kortum asked Austin James, elections director at the Secretary of State, if James could clarify where funds for the mailer came from.
“No, that’s not — I can’t,” James said in the meeting. James said the 23 voters flagged as potential noncitizens participated in an “uncomfortable amount of elections.” James did not offer more information about which elections the 23 participated in.
COMPLAINT FILED OVER THE POSTCARD
Documents printed with public money require the disclosure of the cost per copy, cost of distribution and total cost, according to Montana law. The postcard from Jacobsen lacks that information, though the office did not confirm its funding source.
Neither Jacobsen’s office, nor the state Department of Administration’s Print and Mail division, returned requests for that information by publication time for this article.
On Jan. 7, Harlowton resident Susan Beley filed a complaint with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices over Jacobsen allegedly using state funds to support false claims about non-citizen voting. Commissioner Chris Gallus told MTFP this week he will make a determination over whether to accept the complaint, which would be followed by an investigation, in the coming days.
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