24 April 2018 — 2049 mdt

News from today’s Green Party ballot access lawsuit hearing

The hearing will reconvene on Montana, 30 April, report KXLH’s Mike Dennison and the Missoulian’s Holly Michels. Because no decision is expected before the 5 June 2018 primary election, and many ballots have been printed, there will be a Green Party primary ballot with one contested election: the nomination for U.S. Senator between Steve Kelly, a bonafide Green, and Tim Adams, a Greenie-come-lately that not everyone is sure is a genuine Green.

Perhaps the most interesting news from the hearing is that Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton was represented by Billings private attorney Emily Jones, wife of Republican operative Jake Eaton, who found herself in a bit of legal trouble last year. It’s not going to take much for conspiracy theorists to conclude that Stapleton’s retaining her is pretty convincing evidence that persons neither unsympathetic to nor unassociated with the Republican party were trying to help get the Green Party on the ballot in the belief that would take votes away from Jon Tester.

Instead of trusting employees of Montana’s Democratic Party to determine whether petition signatures were valid, I think the court should appoint a special master, a recognized independent expert, to examine the petitions. And I agree with Steve Kelly that the court should appoint an attorney to represent the interests of the voters who signed the petitions.