GOP Loses Bid To Keep Green Party On Montana Ballot

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports:



Another effort to restore Montana Green Party candidates to the general election ballot has been denied, officials said Monday. Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied an emergency request from two candidates and two Green Party voters to restore the candidates to the ballot.

Many of the signers who asked to remove their names from the petitions did so after learning the Montana Republican Party had bankrolled the $100,000 signature gathering effort, which violated campaign finance laws.

Third-party candidates can draw support from major party candidates. Green Party candidates sometimes draw votes away from Democrats while Libertarian candidates sometimes siphon votes from Republicans.