Montana Democrats’ efforts to get the Green Party removed from the ballot this week was successful, Fox News reports.
The Montana Supreme Court ruled the Green Party must be dropped from the ballot. Now, Green Party representatives say they will fight back to return to the ballot.
According to Fox News, the decision could play a role in the Senate race between Republican Sen. Steve Daines and the current Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock. The Green Party's candidate for Senate is Wendie Fredrickson.
The party was removed after Democrats successfully got 500 petition signatories to recant their signatures. The withdrawals left the Green Party short of the signatures needed to make the ballot.
Green Party representatives said the ruling happened after pressure was put on people who had already provided valid signatures for a petition in support of putting the Green Party on the ballot.
“The Green Party denounces any effort to harass, intimidate or shame private citizens who signed a ballot access petition for any party or candidate,” National Green Party communications manager Michael O'Neil said in a statement to Fox News. “Our candidates have faced that kind of political bigotry for decades but employing it against regular citizens on this scale marks a new, shameful low.”
Green candidates plan to take their case to federal court, according to Fox News. On Thursday, they filed for an emergency injunction with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing kicking Greens off the ballot infringes on voting rights.
"There was a great deal of pressure applied to [petition signers] to get them to withdraw their signatures. Multiple phone calls with strong language, and repeated letters," local Montana Green Party candidate Gary Marbut, who is running for state Senate, told Fox News.
The Montana secretary of state is separately appealing directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Greens should be allowed on the ballot, Fox News reports.
In their effort to get Green signatures revoked, Democrats indicated that Republicans indirectly hired canvassers to collect signatures for Green Party ballot access.
“We are not naive about Republican Party operatives' motivations,” the Green Party’s O'Neil said. “They believe it undermines their counterpart within the two-party cartel. The Green Party rejects the idea of any candidate ‘taking away the vote’ of another candidate. Votes belong to the voters until the moment they are cast. Candidates must earn those votes.”
The court ruling to eliminate the Green Party from the ballot comes after the state of Montana certified the Green Party for the ballot earlier this year and conducted a Green Party primary, in which 800 Montanans voted. Marbut claims the new ruling violates the federal rights of those voters.
As it stands, the court ruling removes the Greens from the general election ballot at all levels, including the presidency.
Marbut said he and other Greens are trying to get signers to flip back.
“The Green Party wishes for the valid petition submitted in Montana to stand and for Green Party candidates, including presidential nominee Howie Hawkins ... to appear on the Montana ballot,” O'Neil said. “Candidate suppression is a form of voter suppression and, by that measure, Democratic Party leaders are as guilty as anyone of voter suppression in this century.”
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