Get Out the Vote Block Party engages Gallatin County voters
Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
Editor’s note: a previous version of this story stated that Emily Cleveland tabled on behalf of Wild Montana. The story has been updated to note that Cleveland tabled on behalf of the Wild Montana Action Fund.
A haze lingered in the sky on Sept. 14, just days after wildfire smoke left a categorized “Unhealthy” orange din over southwest Montana. Finishing up a rock song on the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture lawn, The Love Darts’ lead singer spoke into the mic.
“This would be a beautiful day to vote,” he said to the downtown Bozeman crowd.
With less than two months to go until Nov. 5, communities across Montana are hosting events, concerts and workshops to engage voters in a major election cycle. The Get Out the Vote Block Party at the Emerson Center was one of these events. Sixteen candidates for local and state elections, along with organizations, mingled with Bozeman residents who will have their say on packed ballots this year.
Leading the charge as director of voter engagement for youth voting education nonprofit Forward Montana, Courtney Smith spoke to EBS about the challenges she’s seen in youth participation.
“One of the biggest hurdles for young voters is that we often face housing insecurity and scarcity, especially in Bozeman,” Smith said.
Smith moved to Bozeman four years ago and has spoken to people during her involvement with FM who have been forced out of Bozeman due to affordability. “So young people are constantly moving … as an organization, we’re always updating and re-registering young people who are moving around.”
Smith said there is a fervor this year in voting interest, which she credits to the presidential election sitting in front of mind for 18-year-olds and up. The Pew Research Center reported that 76% of voters say it really matters who will win the presidential election, echoing 2020’s numbers in interest in the presidential race.
Bozeman is a unique population for voters in Montana— it’s younger, and hosts Montana State University. The median age in Montana is 40.6 years—12 years more than Bozeman’s 28.2 years median age.
An MSU graduate at the block party described watching the Sept. 10 presidential debate as the air quality index in Bozeman inched into the red-colored 150.
“I couldn’t go outside for prolonged periods of time because of how bad the smoke was,” Aristotle Malek said to EBS about watching a national debate in Bozeman, and being disappointed by not hearing about some of the issues important to Montanans, particularly the climate. “They talked about the environment for maybe 10 minutes.”
On the lawn, Malek, who grew up in Billings, spoke with passersby about CI-126, a ballot initiative he’s campaigning for that would open primary elections. He said there were a lot more people than he was expecting today, including an array of liberal- and conservative-leaning voters.
“There’s a lot of positivity around the state level and the national elections … people are really excited for these elections, and I’ve seen a lot of optimism,” Malek said. His friend Jaycee McCandless, also from Billings, nods. For McCandless, the stakes are high for queer rights issues and housing affordability.
As a current MSU student, Mccandless said that the election is a topic of interest on campus. “There’s a lot of organizations for students … like the Queer Straight Alliance or the Black Student Union that care very deeply about this community and have a lot to vote for in this election,” she said.
Emily Cleveland, tabling with the Wild Montana Action Fund, believes registering and educating voters shows government officials what citizens care about. At the block party, the environmental conservation organization aimed to have 2,800 people sign vote pledge cards that included a physical postcard reminder to vote with public land policy in mind.
“So it’s an effective tool for us to help increase turnout across the state,” Cleveland said. “But it also helps us to show decision makers that public lands are a really important issue for voters … I think candidates know that and they are all positioning themselves as public lands champions.”
She advised voters to know the actions behind candidates’ words this year, describing this election cycle as huge.
“When you look at voting records and people’s positions you can see the differences. And so our goal is to make sure that voters have the information they need to see those differences and understand how different candidates are going to take different positions on public lands issues,” Cleveland said.
Before the event came to a finale with a performance by Great Falls, Montana musician and comedian, Reggie Watts, emcee and local candidate Cora Neumann invited all sixteen potential decision-makers on stage to introduce themselves.
One candidate told the crowd there were more signs in his truck, to whoever was interested, and another emphasized the voting power of Gallatin County. Twenty-five days before in-person polling on Nov. 5, absentee ballots will be mailed to residences across Montana. On these ballots, Gallatin County along with fellow Montanans will decide who will take seats in state and national legislatures.
