The Montana House State House Administration Committee will hear SB 565 and SB 566 on Friday, April 14. These are two bills that drastically worsen ballot access. SB 565 would give Montana the most severe law in the nation for minor party and independent candidates for partisan office, a petition of 5% of the registered voters, with a very difficult distribution requirement for the minor party petition. For statewide office, currently no state requires a petition greater than 3% of the last gubernatorial vote (for mandatory procedures), and other than Alabama, none is greater than 2% of the last vote cast.

SB 565 also suffers from violating due process, because it raises the vote test to a level that would dump the Libertarian Party off the ballot, and takes effect immediately, so the party would not even have a chance to try to meet the new vote test. This violates court decisions that raising the requirements for retention of a party cannot take effect immediately.

SB 566 would impose a top-two system for U.S. Senate in 2024, but would not apply to any other office or any election year beyond 2024. It is openly touted as a means to keep the Libertarian Party off the November 2024 ballot for U.S. Senate. Montana already has an open primary, so there is no pretense that the bill is for the purpose of letting independent voters vote in primaries. Here is an article about SB 566 in The Hill.