The Montana Democratic Party sued the secretary of state and the state of Montana on Thursday to get the Green Party's Senate candidate removed from general election ballots. 

The Democrats are asking a judge to permanently bar Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen from certifying any Green Party candidate in the Senate election, including who was slated to be on the ballot, Darby resident Robert Barb.

The last time Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester was up for reelection in 2018, the Montana Democrats also sued to get the Greens out of the Senate contest by alleging that the party did not garner enough valid signatures to get their candidates on the ballot. The Democrats were successful in this suit and the Green Party was kicked off the general election ballot.

This most recent suit comes in response to a last-minute shake-up in the Greens' U.S. Senate candidates: In an effort to block Barb from winning the June primary election, Helena resident Michael Downey filed to run as a Green Party candidate as well. Downey beat Barb by nearly 25 points in the primary and was on the path to being the Green Party's candidate.

But on the last day possible, Downey withdrew his name from consideration, giving the Green Party the power to select a new candidate. Barb threw his hat back in the ring and the Montana Green Party's ballot access coordinator Steve Kelly said the party was moving ahead with Barb.

Now, in their lawsuit, the Democrats are alleging that the Green Party did not go through the proper procedure when selecting Barb as their candidate.

"The Green Party’s Senate nominee timely withdrew, and the Party has not chosen a replacement candidate through the process required by its rules," the suit reads.

Kelly weighed in on that interpretation.

"They're not the Green Party so they can interpret the Green Party's obligations any way they want," Kelly said.

Despite essentially never winning federal elections in recent years, third-party candidates have the potential to play an important role. It is commonly believed that Libertarian candidates stand to garner votes that would otherwise go to Republican candidates, while Green Party candidates can do the same but to Democrats. 

Montana's 2024 U.S. Senate election is one of the most closely watched contests in the nation as it is likely to predict which party has control of the Senate. Tester — who is only one of two Democratic senators running for reelection in states that Donald Trump won in 2020 — is being challenged by Republican nominee and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. The race stands at a statistical tie, according to recent polling, and Downey previously told the Montana State News Bureau that he pulled out of the race over fear that he would take votes away from Tester and harm the Senator's victory chances. 

In the lawsuit, the Democrats say they will be harmed by having a Green Party candidate on the ballot because the party "will be required to divert staff time and resources to developing new messaging strategies that appeal to voters choosing between the Democratic and Green Party candidates."

"They want to eliminate the competition," Kelly said. "This is pure and simple voter suppression and strong-arm tactics."

The importance of the third parties in tight elections is not lost on either major party, and this dynamic can lead to both the Democrats and Republicans meddling in the third-party world. 

Earlier this month, a number of top Montana Republicans were said to have been encouraging the Libertarian Senate candidate to drop out and endorse Sheehy, and former President Donald Trump called out the Libertarian candidate in front of a massive audience in Bozeman. And in 2020, the Montana GOP paid for an effort to qualify the Montana Green Party for the ballot that election cycle by funding petitioners in the state’s major cities to gather signatures to qualify Greens for the ballot, despite the fact that the Green Party made clear it did not do any work to qualify for the ballot that year and had not planned to run any candidates.

Downey said he jumped in the race — only 90 minutes before the March deadline to file — because he did not feel like Barb embodied the tenets of the Green Party.

“I had felt like if we’re going to have a Green Party candidate at least have somebody who's Green,” Downey said, adding that he found online that Barb had contributed money to Republicans in the past.

Barb made multiple small-dollar donations to the Republican National Committee over a few days in April 2021, according to federal filings. And while Barb’s campaign materials and court statements conform to Green ideals, his social media pushes conspiracy theories popular among the far-right.

Meanwhile, Downey has a multi-year history of ties to the Democratic Party. According to federal elections filings, Downey has made donations to several Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaigns and Kathleen Williams’ 2018 bid for Montana’s U.S. House seat.

Neither the Montana Democratic Party nor the Secretary of State's office immediately responded to request for comment.