Senator Mike Cuffe, sponsor of Senate Bill 490, told the House State Administration Committee on Tuesday that the bill would add a Saturday registration opportunity the weekend before a federal election and set a noon cutoff on election day for federal races to reduce late-night processing by election workers.

"This is a great common sense solution to a continuing problem of voting poll workers having to work... and fatigue brings the added possibility of mistakes," Cuffe said, urging the committee to grant the bill a do-pass recommendation.

Supporters including Broadwater County Clerk and Recorder Angie Paulsen and Lewis and Clark County elections administrator Connor Fitzpatrick described operational strain under the current late-registration practice. Paulsen said some counties saw lines "out the door from 7AM until 8PM" and that Monday before an election is a critical work day to print registers and prepare machines. She said Saturday hours would let election offices serve voters who cannot make weekday hours and relieve staff that now work into the early morning.

Opponents — including Jay Eze, an attorney for Secure Democracy; Alex Rate of the ACLU of Montana; Alyssa Snow representing Fort Belknap, Blackfeet and Chippewa Cree tribal interests; Forward Montana; and other civic groups — said the proposal would reduce access for Indigenous, rural and working voters and risk litigation. Rate argued the Montana Supreme Court has subjected restrictions on same‑day registration to strict scrutiny, citing the litigation over 2021’s House Bill 176.

"The elimination of election day registration creates an unnecessary additional barrier to the ballot box that may ultimately result in denying the right to vote for these communities," Alex Rate said.

Multiple informational and county election officials said the bill preserves the same number of registration hours in most counties but shifts when they occur: it would keep late registration through noon on election day for federal contests while adding a Saturday window and adjusting Monday cutover tasks. The sponsor and some election administrators said the change was intended to reduce the frequency of polls not closing until very late or into the early morning — examples cited included news reports of voting activity as late as 4:00 a.m. in some counties under the current system.

Legal concerns were a consistent theme in testimony. Jay Eze and other opponents warned that a statute that curtails same‑day registration for federal races could be struck down in Montana courts under the state constitution’s protections for the right to vote. Regina Plettenberg, Ravalli County election administrator speaking as an informational witness for the Montana Association of Clerk and Recorders, described the legal note to the committee saying the Montana Supreme Court in litigation over HB 176 found some restrictions on late registration impermissible under strict scrutiny.

Committee members asked technical questions about operational details — whether counties would be forced to open on Saturday, how counties would handle staffing and machine preparation, whether changing the cutoff for federal contests would require printing separate ballots, and how the change would affect voters who live far from county seats. Several election officials urged clarifying language to ensure voters in line at a closing time are helped, and to avoid unintended consequences such as different ballots for parts of the ballot that are federal and nonfederal.

No formal committee vote was recorded during the hearing. Sponsor Cuffe closed urging members to put themselves "in the shoes of the person out there trying to run the election" and to weigh the fatigue and error risks faced by election workers.

The hearing record includes a range of operational clarifications provided by election administrators: late registration is currently allowed up until polls close, regular registration ends 30 days before an election, counties must print updated registers the Monday before a federal election (a task supporters said requires staff time), and some counties already offer Saturday hours.

The bill drew sustained public, tribal and organizational testimony and several requests for statutory clarification; committee action was not taken at the hearing.

Ending: The committee closed the hearing on Senate Bill 490 after extended testimony and moved on to additional bills on the agenda.