This Washington Times story, especially the bottom half, gives a detailed and interesting account of the Montana trial over whether the Green Party has enough valid signatures on its party petition this year. There have been other news stories but this seems to be the most informative. There is no decision yet.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER —
How much Donkey/Elephant $$$ for Libertarian/Green ballot access ???
I disagree with the Green Party on almost everything, but we MUST find a way to break the Republicrat duopoly. It is against the public interest.
The Helena newspaper had some early reports that included the Democratic Party briefs and also the petition sheets.
It sounds like the Democrats have added another claim – that one of the Green Party candidates for US Senator is not a “legitimate” Green member. I doubt that is judicable, particularly since Montana does not have party registration. We don’t actually know that the plaintiffs even vote in the Democratic primary.
There may be enough that a Democrat-inclined judge could decide for the Democrats. Or maybe the Democrats are stringing it out long enough for publicity reasons.
The chair of the Green Party was urging voters to vote early before one of the hearings – perhaps to establish facts on the ground – that votes had actually been cast in the primary. She was also urging voters to run as write-in candidates for legislative offices. In Montana, if there are no declared candidates, whether on ballot, or as a declared candidate, an informal write-in candidate may be nominated or elected, though nomination requires an extremely unlikely number of votes (5% of previous gubernatorial vote).
By denying the Libertarian Party a separate ballot, Montana is denying voters the opportunity to nominate by write-in. Montana’s system of separate ballots for each party does not make sense. Wisconsin and Michigan also do not have party registration, but they print a single ballot with all parties, and the voter simply marks candidates of one one party.
The filing fee in Montana for the legislature is $15 (and this can be waived if the candidate can not afford the fee). It makes no sense to have any sort of petition barrier for new parties or independent candidates. Simply let all candidates pay $15 and appear on a single ballot. If necessary hold, a runoff.
Our United Coalition PacificNW team in PacificNW Super-state Parliament (ss12) are eager to be part of the solution in Montana.
http://www.usparliament.org/ss12.php