Montana Title 13. Elections § 13-27-303. Verification of signatures by county official--allocating voters following reapportionment--duplicate signatures

(1) Except as required by 13-27-104, within 4 weeks after receiving the sheets or sections of a petition, the county official shall check the names of all signers to verify they are registered electors of the county. In addition, the official shall randomly select signatures on each sheet or section and compare them with the signatures of the electors as they appear in the registration records of the office. If all the randomly selected signatures appear to be genuine, the number of signatures of registered electors on the sheet or section may be certified to the secretary of state without further comparison of signatures. If any of the randomly selected signatures do not appear to be genuine, all signatures on that sheet or section must be compared with the signatures in the registration records of the office.

(2) For the purpose of allocating the signatures of voters among the several legislative representative districts of the state as required to certify a petition for a statutory referendum or a constitutional convention initiative under the provisions of this chapter following the filing of a districting and apportionment plan under 5-1-111 and before the first gubernatorial election following the filing of the plan, the new districts must be used with the number of signatures needed for each legislative representative district being the total votes cast for governor in the last gubernatorial election divided by the number of legislative representative districts.

(3) Upon discovery of fraudulent signatures or duplicate signatures of an elector on any one issue, the election administrator may submit the name of the elector or the signature gatherer, or both, to the county attorney to be investigated under the provisions of 13-27-610 and 13-35-207.