DESPERATE Democrats Are Suing the Montana Green Party to Keep Them Off the Ballots

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana was already facing a tough re-election battle in a state that Donald Trump won by a landslide — and then the Green Party made the Democrat’s job that much tougher by qualifying for the ballot.



Now the Montana Democratic Party is scrambling to oust the Greens. It has asked a judge to decertify the left-wing party by declaring 180 petition signatures invalid for reasons such as bad handwriting, use of initials instead of full names and failure to write in cursive.



The lawsuit, filed April, 2 has the Greens seeing red. They accuse state Democrats of trying to disenfranchise voters in a politically motivated attack.



“They’re scared,” said Danielle Breck, Montana Green Party coordinator. “There seems to be this belief that we’re going to spoil the race, particularly [for] Jon Tester. His seat is at risk, and they’re afraid we’re going to siphon votes from them.”



Democrats have reason to be nervous. Mr. Tester, a two-term incumbent, is regarded as one of the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats, trying to defy the odds in a state that Mr. Trump carried by 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.