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Contact: montana@cartercenter.org
Date: September 8, 2025
Montana Election Observation Initiative Announces Comprehensive Municipal Election Monitoring Plan for 2025
MISSOULA, Mont. – The Montana Election Observation Initiative (MTEOI) today announced its strategic focus on municipal elections throughout 2025, building on its seminal 2024 deployment across sixteen counties, representing 75 percent of Montana voters. MTEOI understands that local elections are vitally important to the health of a democracy and recognizes electoral integrity as a year-round public concern.
Comprehensive Observation Framework
The Montana Election Observation Initiative (MTEOI) will maintain its established 2024 methodology continuing its focus on critical vote-by-mail process stages, including pre-election equipment testing and ballot preparation, Election Day voting operations and tabulation, and post-election verification through county canvass processes, and results certification.
MTEOI is recruiting citizen observers to serve in their home communities across five key counties: Carbon, Lake, and Cascade Counties for general elections in November, and Lewis & Clark and Missoula Counties for both primary and general elections. MTEOI observers will continue using a secure online platform for real-time reporting and analysis from their Missoula data center, enabling rapid validation and trend analysis for public reporting. MTEOI will issue a provisional statement following general elections in November, with a final report, including disaggregated findings by county, in December.
MTEOI is also launching three pilot programs in hopes to expand understanding of the election environment: a Voter List Maintenance Assessment to evaluate county compliance with maintenance provisions and identify best practices, an Information Environment Analysis conducting sentiment analysis of radio and social media communications with trend identification, and a Post-Election Dispute Resolution Review providing comprehensive evaluations of any legal challenges to the election process.
"Our expanded approach reflects our commitment to providing Montanans with transparent, data-driven insights into every aspect of their electoral process," said Nicole Rowsell, Manager at MTEOI. "By focusing on municipal elections and enhancing our analytical capabilities, we're strengthening public confidence in Montana's democratic institutions."
About the Montana Election Observation Initiative
The Montana Election Observation Initiative (MTEOI) was founded in 2024 as a nonpartisan election observation effort designed to increase trust and transparency in elections. Under the guidance of a cross-partisan Board of Directors, MTEOI is sponsored by the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana and receives support from the Carter Center. MTEOI’s observations provide data and analysis to generate comprehensive, evidence-based reports on the adherence to election laws and procedures. Findings are compiled and shared with election officials, policymakers, and the public to foster trust and promote continuous improvement.
For more information, visit mteoi.org.
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