Big Sky Times

Green Party candidates who qualified in the Green primary will not appear on November's ballot unless the Montana Supreme Court reverses a Montana First Judicial District Court finding against Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton (R-Billings).

District Court Judge James P. Reynolds ruled against Stapleton on Aug. 7, stating that the secretary of state does not have the authority to certify a ballot petition qualifying the Green Party to the governor.

“The court concludes that the secretary's ad hoc decision-making with regards to the [ballot] petition defeats the purpose of these statutes,” Reynolds wrote in his opinion. “Such actions fly in the face of real established principles for open governmental action, requiring public participation and knowledge. The remedy for these actions is to set aside the secretary's decision as set forth above.”

Election law expert Edward Greim | https://www.gravesgarrett.com/

After the Green Party had collected enough signatures with the assistance of petition circulators, Stapleton qualified the political party on March 6 for the primary ballot but the Montana Democratic Party sued, according to the Montana Free Press.

“Their argument is that it injures them because when the Greens are on the ballot, they have to then compete for voters who are tempted to vote Green instead of Democratic and that they have to then change their email lists that go out, and change their messaging, which is more expensive,” said Kansas City attorney and election law expert Edward Greim, who represents petition-signers and supporters of Green Party access. “[Democrats] would rather not have the burden and the expense of having to convince potential Green voters to vote Democratic.”

Allies of Stapleton contend that the trial court did not consider the First Amendment rights of the Green Party ballot-access supporters and petition-signers.

“So far the Montana courts are saying that doesn't matter and they’re not paying attention to that,” Greim told the Big Sky Times. “If the Montana Supreme Court sticks with that position, then we will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Judge Reynolds also objected to the $100,000 that the Montana Republican Party said it contributed to employ a petition-circulating firm to collect signatures in favor of placing Green Party candidates on the November ballot.

“The Montana GOP and its agents failed to properly and timely disclose its involvement in the petition in violation of Montana's campaign finance rules, and only made such disclosure weeks after signers had signed the petition and even after it was submitted to officials,” Reynolds ruled.

The case will be settled, at least initially, by an emergency writ of mandamus, which is currently making its way through the appeals process due to the looming elections on Nov. 3. Issues on appeal include timeliness, formality and fraud exception, according to Greim.

“Judge Reynolds adopted every single argument made by the Democratic Party, and the Democrats were misstating Montana law,” Greim said. “They alleged there was fraud because the Republican Party funded the effort and people who signed thought the Green Party was funding the effort. That's not the definition of fraud. The district court’s decision doesn't discuss our argument that it wasn’t the law. The ruling doesn't weigh both sides. It just adopts what the Democratic Party presented.”

Juliette Fairley is a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni who has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Texas Monthly, Time Magazine and many other publications.