Lawmakers Advance Bill Requiring More Signatures For Minor Party Candidates

Running for public office as an independent or minor- party candidate in Montana would get harder under a bill gaining early support in the state Legislature.

House lawmakers on Friday, Jan. 31, gave early approval to House Bill 207, which would double the number of signatures independent and minor-party candidates need to qualify for office. The bill would also shorten by 50 days the amount of time candidates had to gather signatures.

In the House State Administration Committee, members opposed to the bill questioned whether lawmakers were legislating against would-be challengers.

“This makes me a little concerned or curious about which legislators are worried about competition,” said Rep. Peter Strand, D-Bozeman.

Rep. Julie Darling, R-Helena, the committee chair, drew chuckles from the committee by telling Strand that “as a legislator, I think that we should all be worried about competition. That’s our job.”

Before the bill passed out of committee on an 11 to 8 vote, no one suggested the bill made things easier for independent and minor-party candidates.

There have been several independent and minor-party candidates on the ballot in recent elections. State law requires these candidates to qualify by gathering the signatures of registered voters. Candidates of Montana’s major political parties — Libertarian, Democratic and Republican — qualify without signatures.

HB 207 would increase the amount of petition signatures needed to run as an independent in legislative races to 10 percent of the total vote cast for the successful candidate running for the same office in the last general election. The current requirement is 5 percent.

For statewide and federal offices, the bill still requires signatures equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast in the last general election, but that number was amended down from 15 percent in committee.

Rep. Shelly Fyant, D-Arlee, said that Montana’s 5 percent signature requirement is more than most states require.

“It would mean that our state is requiring more signatures than anyone else per capita,” Fyant said. She shared an anecdote about an independent candidate she knows having to gather more than 100 extra signatures to account for the high number of signatures that are usually thrown out for not qualifying.

The bill also required that signatories be active voters, meaning that voters who haven’t confirmed their registration, of which Montana has thousands, wouldn’t qualify.

Bill sponsor Rep. Jodee Etchart, R-Billings, fought off an independent challenger in 2024, defeating independent Janna Hafer 3,059 to 2,264.

In 2022, independent Gary Buchanan, a Billings investment adviser, finished second to Republican incumbent Matt Rosendale in Montana’s Eastern District U.S. House race. Buchanan picked up 21 percent of the vote, besting the Democrat in the race, Penny Ronning, who finished third. Buchanan wrote lawmakers ahead of Friday’s committee vote. He called HB 207 an attempt to keep Montanans off the ballot.

“Independents are growing, unlike the Republican and Democratic parties,” Buchanan told legislators. “I ran as an independent for Congress in 2022. Over 200 volunteers campaigned and collected signatures for me across the eastern district which totaled 15,000. Many of my vocal supporters were Republicans.”

Republicans in recent elections have attempted to persuade third-party candidates to abandon federal elections, most recently in 2024 when Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate Sid Daoud was flown to Bozeman to meet with Donald Trump during a rally held for Republican Tim Sheehy. Daoud stayed in the race.

Democrats twice challenged Green Party candidates in Montana federal races, most recently Green candidate Robert Barb in Montana’s 2024 U.S. Senate race. Barb earned a fraction of the vote.

In northwest Montana’s 2024 race for the Public Service Commission’s District 4 race, write-in candidate Elena Evans won 45.3 percent of the vote. Incumbent Jennifer Fielder won 54.7 percent. Evans approached the 47 percent vote share of Democrat Monica Tranel in her 2020 PSC race against Fielder.

The days for registering and gathering signatures as an independent were also dramatically shortened. Candidates requiring petition signatures have been allowed to register as early as 145 days before a primary election and no later than 85 days before the general. HB 207 shortened early registration to 105 days before the election and late registration to 90 days.