HELENA — In 2026, judicial elections in Montana will be conducted without political party labels – as they have been for decades – after a series of proposals to change the system failed to pass the Legislature this year. Now, a new committee wants to ask Montana voters if they want to keep those elections nonpartisan by amending the state constitution.
“It doesn't matter what political party: political parties should not be determining how our judiciary is run,” said Pepper Petersen, political director for the newly formed Montanans for Fair and Impartial Judges. “The Montana state constitution should be the one and only document, the one and only driving force, behind the loyalties for judicial candidates.”
(Watch the video for more on the proposal to put an amendment in front of voters.)
Lawmakers have debated proposals to introduce party labels to judicial elections each of the last three legislative sessions, but none have been successful. During the 2025 session, five different bills were voted on, and the idea resurfaced one more time on the final day.
“We were at the Legislature, and we saw that this issue kept coming up over and over again,” Petersen said.
Petersen said his group is now starting discussions about proposing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing judicial elections are nonpartisan, to go before voters next year. If it makes the ballot and voters approve it, that would stop the Legislature from introducing party labels without another amendment.
“Parties and politicians don't run our state, the citizens do,” said Petersen. “They need to answer to Montanans.”
This is still very early in the process. The committee hasn’t even put together proposed language yet. Petersen said they’ll be meeting with stakeholders to talk about what the measure will look like before drafting it. However, he said he expects it will be short – possibly only a sentence or two.
“We're not going to try to make things confusing,” he said. “It's going to be a simple question to answer – and Montanans already know the answer, we're convinced of that.”
Once the final language is complete, supporters will need to submit it to the state for review. If state leaders determine it meets the requirements to go on the ballot, the committee will then have to collect signatures from more than 60,000 registered voters in order to qualify.
Petersen and Ted Dick, two of the leaders of the new committee, were also the main organizers of New Approach Montana – the successful 2020 ballot campaigns to legalize recreational marijuana sales in the state.
“We've worked on the state constitution before with other issues, and we know you've got to get started very early, so you can build the right coalition and so you can get the right people involved and then go out and educate Montanans,” said Petersen.
Opponents of the current system of judicial elections – particularly Republicans – argue there’s already politics in these races, and keeping them nonpartisan is only hiding information from voters. They point to recent Montana Supreme Court elections, where they say it’s been clear which candidates are backed by conservative-leaning groups and which are supported by liberal-leaning groups.
Petersen says he’s confident Montanans are going to want to enshrine the system they already have.
“If it wasn't going to pass, first off, we wouldn't be attempting to put it on the ballot, because why waste the time?” he said. “But Montanans have signaled time and time again that they want Montana's judiciary to be independent. And so, it's time to put this on the ballot, to put this question to rest.”
If this proposal is going to make the 2026 ballot, the deadline to gather signatures will be next summer.
