Brad Johnson predicts that Montana’s secretary of state race will be livelier than usual, with sharp differences over how to counter fraud at the center of the general election.

Johnson, who served as secretary of state from 2005 to 2009, is running against three other Republicans in the primary election: Scott Aspenlieder of Helena, Patty Lovaas of MIssoula and Drew Turiano of Helena.

The winner will go on to face incumbent Democrat Linda McCulloch in the general election.

In an interview in Kalispell on Tuesday, Johnson outlined four measures he would pursue to counter voter fraud. “Secretary McCulloch and I would be 180 degrees apart on these,” Johnson said.

In 2007, Johnson advocated legislation that would eliminate election day voter registration, instead setting a deadline for registration on the Friday preceding the Tuesday election. The bill was vetoed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, but Johnson says he will take up the banner again if elected.

Montana is only one of a handful of states that have election-day voter registration, and Johnson views the Friday deadline as a reasonable safeguard against voter fraud.

Another reason for the earlier deadline is administrative efficiency.

“It would just eliminate a lot of election-day chaos in the county election offices,” he said.

Johnson concedes that Montana currently doesn’t have “rampant voter fraud” problems, but he said he believes the state should be active and take precautions against it in the future.

“I want to make sure that when we’re done [voting] on Tuesday, people believe the results,” he said.

Johnson favors beefing up the state’s voter identification rules, which currently allow people to vote with bank statements, bills and other forms of “watered down” identification.

“Once you move into that generic area [of identification] the potential effectiveness is diluted,” he said.

He also wants to modernize the signature verification process used for mail-in ballots, which he estimates will account for 50 percent of votes cast in Montana in November.

Johnson said there is technology to improve and speed up signature verification and he intends to make use of it.

He also wants to see increased authority for the secretary of state to investigate and prosecute violations of state election laws. That is an endeavor that likely would involve a cooperative arrangement with the attorney general’s Justice Department.

Currently, the secretary of state can only refer potential violations to county attorneys, and that is inadequate, Johnson said.

He noted that McCulloch has established a website for the public to report possible voter fraud or election law violations, but he believes it is only “window dressing” that creates an illusion that there are safeguards to protect the integrity of elections.

During the last election cycle, he said, there were at least 50 reports submitted to the website but there were no prosecutions.

He reiterated his prediction that the secretary of state contest will revolve around election issues by November.

“I don’t know the last time we’ve had a rematch for secretary of state,” he said, referring to his 2008 loss to McCulloch. “I’m certainly looking forward to it.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.