As already noted, last year the Ninth Circuit struck down the Montana distribution requirement for petitions to create a qualified party. The Montana legislature is not scheduled to meet during calendar year 2022, so there is no likelihood that the legislature can restore the distribution requirement until 2023 at the earliest. Presumably if the legislature restores it, it will require an equal number of signatures from legislative districts, avoiding the constitutional problem.
Therefore, for 2022, the petition to qualify a new party will be easier than it has been since 1969. The petition still needs 5,000 signatures, but signatures can be gathered anywhere in the state. However, the petition deadline is in late February.
Before 1969, Montana allowed any group to be a qualified party, simply on request. There was no petition requirement.
Currently, the only ballot-qualified parties in Montana are Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian. The Green Party has a potentially strong case that it should be restored to the ballot without a new petition, because it petitioned in both 2018 and 2020 and both times, the petition was set aside because of the unconstitutional distribution requirement. However, so far, the Montana Green Party hasn’t filed any paperwork in the federal court asking to be restored.
This is good. The distribution requirement in Montana was an unreasonably difficult barrier.
The constitutional problem is that states have monopolized the ballot as “public property” and can impose censorship of voter choice by any petition quotas or any candidate fees. A voter verifiable all write-in ballot would recover the property right in the ballot lost by the secret ballot laws adopted in the 1890s. The result has been election outcomes controlled by the incumbent duopoly parties no matter their squabbles over which of them controls the counting of censored ballots.
Izindaba ezimnandi! KuyiSonto! Iviki elisha lokuqala kabusha. ISonto Elihle kuwo wonke umuntu!
The One Party doesn’t care about that, we’re not looking for members, we don’t want to have to change the name.
@DFR,
Why should elections be by ballot?
Why is joogle posting in Zulu? Is that a language they speak in Montana?
I am working on the new 36-member Provincial Senate Chamber and a good man from Zululand South Africa is a strong candidate and Facebook friend.
http://www.international-parliament.org/senate.html
He is consolatory to working with whites everywhere. I’ve been friends with him for more than five years and he’s pretty young. Probably around 25 years old.
He was wishing me “Happy Sunday” on my Facebook page and I thought I’d post the same here for fun.
ANNOUNCEMENT
2022-1-23
By James Ogle [One], nominated to pick Lieutenant Governor of California
The Conservative Liberal 1Libertarian Caucus Will Be Approving “Equal Rights Ammendment” in Fakertarians Discussion Group International Bureau (FDG-IB) Unity Platform on Monday January 24th, 2022!
http://www.allpartysystem.com
I never really got the idea of distribution requirements.