HB 295 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Revise laws related to judicial transparency and elections

HB 295, titled "Revise laws related to judicial transparency and elections," sought to change rules for judicial candidates in elections. The bill would have allowed candidates for judicial office to indicate a political party affiliation on their declaration for nomination. This affiliation would then be permitted to appear on the election ballot alongside the candidate's name. Additionally, the bill would have allowed judicial candidates to publicly announce their political party affiliations and any campaign endorsements they received.

Bill status died 2 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House Failed

Feb 2025

Governor

Introduced Jan 23, 2025 Last action May 20, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC3030.pdf → HB0295_1.pdf · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill revises Montana laws to allow judicial candidates to voluntarily indicate their political party affiliation on nomination declarations and to announce party affiliations or endorsements on their campaign materials. It updates ballot preparation rules to display party names next to judicial candidates' names and clarifies how nonpartisan offices are handled on ballots.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope of judicial election transparency by permitting candidates to disclose party affiliation, whereas previous rules were more restrictive regarding such disclosures for judicial offices.

REQUIREMENT

Judicial candidates are now permitted to indicate their political party affiliation on their declaration for nomination.

Judicial candidates are allowed to announce their political party affiliation or any campaign endorsements they have received.

Ballot preparation rules were updated to require the candidate's political party name to appear with their name if they indicated an affiliation on their declaration.

The statute governing the use of party names was amended to clarify rules for candidates running in partisan versus nonpartisan elections.

Floor votes · House Feb 27, 2025

How they voted

47–53

Failed

Total votes 100

Feb 27, 2025

D Democratic42

42 Nay

100% Nay

R Republican58

47 Yea 11 Nay

81% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 27, 2025

Vote failed

House Vote: fail (47-53)

house

Feb 6, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Report - (H) Judiciary

lower

Feb 6, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Judiciary

lower

Jan 23, 2025

Committee

(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Judiciary

lower

Jan 23, 2025

Introduced

(H) Introduced

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors