On August 20, the Montana Green Party nominees asked the U.S. District Court to grant an injunction to postpone certification of the November ballot for a brief time, so that they can appeal the decision yesterday that removed the party from the ballot. Here is the 4-page request.
Some individuals and groups that supported Bernie Sanders for president this year, and in 2016, are not satisfied with the Democratic Party. They plan to organize their own Peoples Party, and contest the 2024 presidential election. Marianne Williamson, who sought the Democratic nomination this year, has joined them. See this story. Thanks to Tim Phares for the link.
On August 19, U.S. District Court Judge Dana L. Christensen, an Obama appointee, refused to put the Montana Green Party back on the ballot. Davis v Stapleton, 6:20cv-62. The Green Party nominees who filed this lawsuit then filed an appeal to the Ninth Circuit.
Here is the 21-page order, which says on page 17-18 that if the Green Party were put back on the ballot, “the Democratic Party and its voters may see votes for Democratic candidates siphoned by seemingly progressive candidates who would not be on the ballot but for the efforts of the Montana GOP.”
On August 19, the Montana Supreme Court issued an order, affirming the decision of a lower state court that the Green Party should be removed from the Montana ballot. The Montana Supreme Court said it would explain later. The lower court had removed the Green Party because approximately 600 signers of the Green Party petition had signed a form asking that their signatures be removed from the party’s petition.
The Montana election code has no provision for signers of a party petition to remove their names. The lower state court said because there is such a provision for initiatives, the implication is that all types of petition are covered.
The only reason the subtraction of approximately 600 signatures mattered, is that the Montana party petition has an unconstitutional, unequal distribution requirement. Although the party petition had 13,000 signatures, and only 5,000 are required, the subtractions brought down the number in one of the legislative districts.
Whether the removal of the party from the ballot violates dues process is also pending in U.S. District Court. If the state precedent is allowed to stand, no new party in the future will ever be able to get on the Montana ballot with safety. The precedent will be that even after the party has been certified for the ballot, and given its own primary, several months later opponents of that party can erase its ballot status.
Montana Green Party activists are reporting that some of the party’s petitioners were browbeaten into removing their names, and some of them are willing to testify that they do not want their names removed. But it is already too late to get this evidence into the state court proceeding.
On August 19, the staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission recommended to the Commission that both Howie Hawkins and Kanye West be omitted from the November ballot as presidential candidates. The Hawkins petition doesn’t have enough valid signatures when the sheets showing the out-of-date postal address for the vice-presidential nominee are omitted.
The West petition was deemed to have been submitted after 5 p.m.
This story has a link to the commission recommendations. The Hawkins petition discussion starts at page 34. On August 20, the Elections Commission will decide whether to omit one or both candidates.
