Get an insider’s look into what’s happening in and around the halls of power with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Sign up to get the free Capitolized newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Sign up April 2, 2026 There’s been almost a year of “No Kings” rallies on Montana’s Capitol grounds and outside county courthouses. Is all that marching translating into increased voter registration? It doesn’t appear to be.  Neither statewide nor county-level voter registration data shows an unusual uptick in people signing up to vote in the 2026 primaries. One month before the start of voting, registration has increased 4.8% over the previous primary election cycle. That’s a slower pace of growth than the previous midterm of 2022, when registration was up 6.8% from the prior primary. A crowd of roughly 1,000 gathers at the “No Kings” rally at the Montana Tribal Flag Plaza on June 14, 2025. Credit: Zeke Lloyd / MTFP “I don’t think things like No Kings hurt. Can they help? We just can’t predict, based on the number of people at protest rallies, what elections will look like in November,” said Jeremy Johnson, director of political science at Carroll College in Helena. Pollsters looking for correlations between public events and voter registration confirm the same. Montana voter registration growth since the previous primary period is more of a slog than a march to the polls, including in Montana counties with the highest numbers of registered voters. Yellowstone County, with 110,003 registered voters, has seen a 6.3% increase since 2024, which is slightly less than the 7.3% registration rise in the 2022 midterm. Voter registration growth in Gallatin County, where No Kings protesters line Main Street for six blocks on rally days, has seen a modest 4.8% increase to 95,904 registrants since 2024, which is a little more than half the registration growth of 9.3% recorded in 2022. Missoula County voter registration is up 2.5% since the 2024 primary. There’s little to suggest that the protests are driving an uprising at the ballot box. —Tom Lutey Where did all the Democrats go? It’s been a few years since Gallatin County voters elected a Republican to the County Commission, but it appears that’s about to change. Republican Colter Metcalf, a retired Gallatin County sheriff’s deputy, is the only candidate left for Commission District 3. Two Democrats were registered for the 2026 election, but neither is now on the ballot. The story behind the ballot’s absence of Democrats is complicated, Gibbons told Capitolized.  District 3 was previously represented by Scott MacFarlane, who resigned in February to take a job in local government. MacFarlane is a Democrat, which means by law his party gets to nominate three candidates to replace him. The nominations are submitted to the County Commission, which selects one. Two of the Democrats considered by the party to replace MacFarlane were Tracie Gibbons and Nate Powell-Palm. Both registered as candidates for the seat in the 2026 election. Powell-Palm then withdrew for personal reasons, leaving Gibbons the only Democrat in the race. Then the county elections office notified Gibbons she’d been disqualified for not living in the district, as is required by law. Gallatin County redrew its county districts in 2023, which put Gibbons in District 1. The notice came a week after the filing deadline, leaving Democrats without a County Commission candidate on the ballot for an open seat Still, Metcalf shouldn’t be too confident the County Commission race is won, Gibbons said. Democrats will likely field a write-in candidate for the general election.  The most recent Republican elected to the Gallatin County Commission was Joe Skinner, who retired in 2022. Skinner was last elected in 2016.  The commission candidate shuffle wasn’t the only thing fueling uncertainty in Gallatin County. Republican Deanna Campbell told Capitolized there was a misunderstanding at the Gallatin County elections office about whether she had the teaching certifications required to run for superintendent of county schools. Campbell had to turn to the state to confirm that she had the necessary certifications. She will face incumbent Democrat John Nielson in November. —Tom Lutey PSC rewire proposed The Public Service Commission meets on Dec. 9, 2025, at its office in Helena. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America There’s once again an effort underway to decommission Montana’s all-elected Public Service Commission. A proposed bill discussed at a March 26 meeting of the Legislature’s Energy and Technology Interim Committee would replace all five elected seats on the PSC with gubernatorial appointees. The PSC regulates monopoly providers of public services, including electric and gas utilities, garbage haulers, and providers of non-government water services for subdivisions. Montana is one of only 10 states that elects its utility commissioners. There are no statutory qualifications for the job other than being old enough to vote and living in the district you’re running to represent. Former state legislators frequently run for the office, which pays a base salary of $114,653 a year. Several legislative bills have been proposed to change the composition of the PSC over the last nine years. The most recent such bill, which proposed to make some PSC positions appointed, died on the floor of the Montana Senate, where Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, joked about where else retired legislators would look for jobs. Four of the five current PSC commissioners are former Montana legislators.  —Tom Lutey Supremes decide for initiative Petitioners for an initiative that would ban corporate spending in Montana’s state elections won a unanimous Montana Supreme Court decision against mining and business groups that tried to stop Initiative 194 on the grounds that it violates their First Amendment right to free speech.  “We’re grateful for the Montana Supreme Courtʼs swift and unanimous decision, which reaffirms the right of Montanans to participate in the initiative process and have their voices heard,” organizer Jeff Mangan said in a press release.  Initiative 194 is also known as the “Transparent Election Initiative.” The ballot language says that I-194, if passed, “limits the powers of artificial persons to those powers necessary or convenient as provided by law. These powers must exclude contributing anything of value to candidate elections, supporting or opposing political parties, or supporting or opposing state or local ballot issues. Artificial persons include non-profits, trusts, partnerships, corporations, trade associations, or unincorporated associations and includes all such entities doing business in Montana. Any violation of this act is punished by forfeiting all privileges to do business in Montana.” —Tom Lutey The post Do Protests Drive Voter Registration? appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less