Federal court to decide Montana ballot lawsuit

MISSOULA, Mont. - A federal judge in Great Falls listened to arguments Tuesday for a lawsuit filed against the Secretary of State's office to get third party names on the May special election ballot.

Thomas Breck is the nominee for the Montana Green Party and Steve Kelly is the potential candidate for the Independent Party. The two along with Danielle Breck are challenging Montana's ballot access laws for independent and minor party candidates.

The trio says they didn't have enough time to collect the required 14,268 signatures to get their names on the ballot under the special election deadlines.

The filing fee for the May 25 special election is $1,740.

According to Montana State law independent and minor party candidates need to collect 5 percent of the total votes cast in the last general election for the successful candidate for the office being sought.

Thomas and Danielle Breck are both registered to vote in Missoula County. Danielle said she would like to have the opportunity to vote for Thomas in the May 25 special congressional election.

Steve Kelly resides in Montana and is registered to vote in Gallatin County. He ran for Congress as an independent candidate in 1994 and wants to run as an independent candidate in the special election.

Secretary of State Corey Stapleton is charged by statue with enforcing Montana's ballot-access scheme for independent and minor party candidates seeking to run in the special election.

The lawsuit is holding up some counties from moving forward with printing ballots for the special election.

Gallatin County Elections Administrator Charlotte Mills said up to $35,000 worth of ballots arrived at the county elections office. She says it would cost upward of $45,000 to reprint the ballots if the judge decides the suing parties names should be added.

Missoula, Ravalli and Mineral counties have not printed their ballots. They are waiting for the judge's decision to print ballots.

Missoula County Elections Administrator Rebecca Connors said the latest Missoula County will wait to hear any decision is April 6. She said that's when they will print ballots regardless of whether the lawsuit is decided.

NBC Montana was told no decision is expected to be made Tuesday.