On April 8, the Montana legislature passed HB 91, the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. It does not make any changes to the ballot access laws, except in a very narrow way. It makes it possible for presidential nominees of political parties to withdraw from the November ballot. This provision is in the bill because in 2008, the Constitution Party of Montana had nominated Ron Paul for President. At the time, the Secretary of State had no alternative but to print Paul’s name on the ballot, even though Paul didn’t want to be on the ballot.
The lawsuit against Montana’s March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates continues to move along. On April 8, both sides submitted additional paperwork to the U.S. District Court that is hearing the lawsuit against that deadline. The Secretary of State probably could have mooted this lawsuit, which is called Kelly v McCulloch, by asking the legislature to move the deadline back to June (the deadline had been in June until 2007, when it had been moved to March). But, the Secretary of State, Linda McCulloch, preferred not to suggest that change, so the lawsuit continues.
The deadline is also one week before the actual filing deadline. So I imagine that if your petition is short of signatures, buy the time a candidates finds out filing is over except for write ins. You do have to read these bills very carefully because you never know what surprizes you will find.
Its good that it passed.
Looks like the nutjobs there that still call themselves the ‘Constitution Party’ can’t pull another fast one again- especially since they no longer have ballot access, LOL.
How many MORON States do NOT permit a candidate to withdraw ???
Where is that MODEL Election Law – to deal with ALL possibilities ???