Update: 5:55 a.m. Nov 9- 

Despite personal assurance from the Secretary of State herself that the ballots from Yellowstone County would be finished by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday Nov. 7, 7% of Montana's ballots have still not been accounted for. All but a few hundred of the unaccounted votes will effect the initiatives.

Even without the late ballots, Referendum 121 will easily pass. It has far and away more support than any other initiative pulling 79.62% of the vote. Over 374,000 votes were cast in favor of the initiative while less than 100,000 voters came out against it.

Update 6:00 a.m. Nov. 7-

With 542 of 793 precincts reporting and partial reporting from the rest, it appears referendum 121 will easily pass with 333,471 votes in favor and only 87,492 votes against. 

 

11:00 p.m. -

With 40 out of 794 precincts reporting, Referendum 121 is on track to pass. Currently there are 128,414 votes in favor of the resolution and only 38,408 against.

 

If passed, legislative referendum no.121 would require all persons seeking state funded services to show proof of citizenship. In turn, State agencies are required to report anyone found to be an illegal alien to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The initiative as written in 2012 Motnana ballots appears below.

AN ACT REFERRED BY THE LEGISLATURE AN ACT DENYING CERTAIN STATE FUNDED SERVICES TO ILLEGAL ALIENS; ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING A PERSON'S CITIZENSHIP STATUS; PROVIDING THAT THE PROPOSED ACT BE SUBMITTED TO THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF MONTANA; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND AN APPLICABILITY DATE.

LR-121 prohibits providing state services to people who are not U.S. citizens and who have unlawfully entered or unlawfully remained in the United States. Under LR-121, every individual seeking a state service, such as applying for any state licenses, state employment, unemployment or disability benefits, or aid for university students, must provide evidence of U.S. citizenship or lawful alien status, and/or have their status verified through federal databases. State agencies must notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of non-citizens who have unlawfully entered or remained in the U.S. and who have applied for state services. The costs associated with verifying U.S. citizenship or lawful alien status will vary by agency and cannot be precisely determined. However, on-going costs may include: hiring and training state personnel to use various federal databases; software, hardware and search charges; and information assessment and management costs.

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