Montana Code 13-35-218. Coercion or undue influence of voters
13-35-218. Coercion or undue influence of voters. (1) A person, directly or indirectly, individually or through any other person, in order to induce or compel a person to vote or refrain from voting for any candidate, the ticket of any political party, or any ballot issue before the people, may not:
Terms Used In Montana Code 13-35-218
- Ballot: means a paper ballot counted manually or a paper ballot counted by a machine, such as an optical scan system or other technology that automatically tabulates votes cast by processing the paper ballots. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Candidate: means :
(a)an individual who has filed a declaration or petition for nomination, acceptance of nomination, or appointment as a candidate for public office as required by law;
(b)for the purposes of chapter 35, 36, or 37, an individual who has solicited or received and retained contributions, made expenditures, or given consent to an individual, organization, political party, or committee to solicit or receive and retain contributions or make expenditures on the individual's behalf to secure nomination or election to any office at any time, whether or not the office for which the individual will seek nomination or election is known when the:
(i)solicitation is made;
(ii)contribution is received and retained; or
(iii)expenditure is made; or
(c)an officeholder who is the subject of a recall election. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Election: means a general, special, or primary election held pursuant to the requirements of state law, regardless of the time or purpose. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Elector: means an individual qualified to vote under state law. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- issue: means a proposal submitted to the people at an election for their approval or rejection, including but not limited to an initiative, referendum, proposed constitutional amendment, recall question, school levy question, bond issue question, or ballot question. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Person: means an individual, corporation, association, firm, partnership, cooperative, committee, including a political committee, club, union, or other organization or group of individuals or a candidate as defined in subsection (8). See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
(a)use or threaten to use any force, coercion, violence, restraint, or undue influence against any person; or
(b)inflict or threaten to inflict, individually or with any other person, any temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm, or loss upon or against any person.
(2)A person may not, by abduction, duress, or any fraudulent contrivance, impede or prevent the free exercise of the franchise by any voter at any election or compel, induce, or prevail upon any elector to give or to refrain from giving the elector’s vote at any election.
(3)A person may not, in any manner, interfere with a voter lawfully exercising the right to vote at an election in order to prevent the election from being fairly held and lawfully conducted.
(4)A person on election day may not obstruct the doors or entries of any polling place or engage in any solicitation of a voter within the room where votes are being cast or elsewhere in any manner that in any way interferes with the election process or obstructs the access of voters to or from the polling place.