A representative from Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s office appeared before a legislative committee Thursday to answer questions from lawmakers about the office’s public mailings and their handling of state voter data.
Jacobsen’s elections director and chief legal counsel spoke to the Legislative Audit Committee on questions about mailers, billboards and voter data.
In January, committee members pressed for more information on how the Secretary of State’s Office paid for more than 466,000 postcards mailed to households across the state. The postcards showed Jacobsen standing beside President Donald Trump and announced her office’s agreement to use a federal database to check whether registered voters in the state are U.S. citizens. They quickly drew public attention and criticism from people who argued they were political in nature.
The office’s representative defended the mailers Thursday as highly effective, and said using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database had already helped the state identify about 900 dead voters they hadn’t previously been aware of, in addition to an already-announced group of dozens of potential non-citizens who were registered. He said the tool would normally cost the state more than $1 million, but the federal government had waived the cost — a savings he said offset the roughly $200,000 cost of printing and mailing the postcards.
In previous committee meetings, the office’s representative said he didn’t have an answer on where the funding for the postcards came from. On Thursday, he accused lawmakers who continued pushing for a funding source of “dishonest politicking,” noting the office didn’t make payment until March, within a 60-day window to pay the invoice to State Print and Mail.
“In my opinion, a scandal was manufactured where none exists,” he said.
The office ultimately used federal grant money through the Help America Vote Act, which is earmarked to help states upgrade voting systems and improve the administration of federal elections.
A few months after the postcards went out, the Secretary of State’s Office again drew attention when a series of billboards featuring Jacobsen appeared along highways around Montana. The billboards reference Senate Bill 276, a law passed by the 2025 Legislature implementing stricter voter ID rules — requiring any ID be “current, valid and readable” and removing a procedure allowing someone to vote a provisional ballot without photo ID by signing a declaration of a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining one.
The office’s representative said the billboards would likely be funded through the Secretary of State’s general budget — revenue from services such as business registration and candidate filing fees — and that the office builds planned public outreach for new legislation into its budget. He noted the office had pledged robust outreach for the voter ID bill when it was before the State Administration Committee last year.
The billboards went up around the time Jacobsen filed as a candidate in the Republican primary for U.S. House in Montana’s western congressional district. Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus received a complaint claiming the billboards were political rather than related to Jacobsen’s official duties. Gallus dismissed that complaint, as he had an earlier one objecting to the postcards, citing previous rulings that public officials had not violated the Code of Ethics by using public funds to produce public service announcements featuring their likeness.
The office’s representative said Jacobsen’s prominent appearance on the postcards and billboards was justified by the message they were trying to convey, and that future voter outreach on issues like late registration and absentee ballot rules would not necessarily feature her image.
Also during Thursday’s meeting, committee members pressed for more answers about how Jacobsen handled the federal government’s requests for the state’s voter data.
Lawmakers said constituents felt the office had been withholding information about what voter data had been turned over to the federal government. The Trump administration has asked states to share their full voter rolls so federal authorities can review them and identify registered voters they believe may be ineligible. Some opponents have warned the data collection poses a threat to voters’ private information.
According to a Montana Free Press report, Jacobsen’s office initially turned over Montana’s public voter file, but the U.S. Department of Justice requested more detailed information not available to the public, including voters’ full dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The office submitted additional information after that request, though Jacobsen said in a social media post that she had not released the full unredacted voter rolls.
The office’s representative said Thursday that the Justice Department had asserted a right under federal law to inspect state documents, including voter rolls, and that the Secretary of State’s Office responded in a way it believed complied with both federal and state requirements. However, he said he was reluctant to provide more specifics given the possibility of litigation. The Trump administration has sued about 30 states for not providing all the voter data it requested.
Lawmakers repeatedly asked for more specifics about what information the office provided and how a later submission differed from the first. Each time, the office’s representative said the office had complied with Montana and federal law but could not elaborate given the ongoing threat of litigation.
By: DNU staff