Missoula attorney Quentin Rhoades told KGVO News Thursday that the Green Party of Montana has prevailed in federal court and will have ballot candidates in the 2022 general election.

“We are very happy,” Rhoades began. “As you know, over the years the Green Party has been kept out of the ballot by lawsuits brought by the Democratic Party in the courts of the State of Montana for various types of deficiencies in their collection techniques of petitions. Part of the problem with their collection of petitions is that the rules under which they operated were unconstitutional.

Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen was the defendant in the legal challenge.

Rhoades, who represented the Green Party in court, expanded on the federal court ruling.

“We were successful in having unconstitutional laws in Montana that did not provide ‘one person, one vote’ in the petition collection process,” he said. “This came from the Ninth Circuit late last year, and so the remedy for this was a consent judgment rendered yesterday (Wednesday), in which the Green Party was put on the ballot for the election cycle of 2022.”

Rhoades explained, in his opinion, why the Democratic Party of Montana fought so hard to prevent the Green Party from voting.

“I think the Democratic Party was afraid that if the Green Party was on the ballot, some people who would vote Democrat, like the ‘AOC’ wing, would be tempted to vote for the Green Party either as a substantial vote to try to get Green Party candidates elected, or as a protest vote, to say that the Democratic Party doesn’t pay enough attention to these kinds of Green Party issues.Because of that, they were afraid it would water down the left-liberal type of vote and takes votes away from the Democratic Party and gives Republicans a better chance of winning.

Due to a timing issue with the federal court ruling, Rhoades said in this election cycle, there may not be many Green Party candidates on the ballot.

“Not many Green Party candidates registered in time, but there are at least two or three, and those will now be able to officially run in Montana as Green Party candidates. , not as independents or under the flag of a different party. , but there will be there going to be able to run under the flag of the Green Party. The federal courts have asserted their right to do so.

In 2020, candidate Gary Marbut attempted to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party to block the Green Party from participating in the Montana ballot.