On April 17, the Montana House State Administration Committee defeated HB 565 by 10-8. However, there are procedures to ask for a re-vote, and there are also procedures for the entire House to take up the bill even though it had been defeated in Committee. HB 565 is the bill that increases petition requirements for new parties, independent candidates, and independent presidential candidates, and also raises the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot.

The other bill, SB 566, for top-two, was postponed until Wednesday, April 19.

The previous blog post said that the top-two bill had been amended from just affecting the U.S. Senate race in 2024, to include all the statewide offices. However the amendment would put the other statewide offices into the top-two system after 2024, not in 2024.