Montana Green Party Candidate Thomas Breck’s name is not on the ballots being sent out to military and overseas voters today, however Breck is still optimistic he can get on the next batch of ballots.

A decision late Saturday night, April 8, by District Court Judge Brian Morris agreed with Breck’s original complaint that the requirement of 14,000 signatures in just six days was unreasonable. Even though Morris dropped the threshold to 400, Breck believes the ruling is still unfair and has appealed to a higher court.

"[Morris] didn't give us a pathway forward," Breck said. Considering the time and effort that goes into a campaign to get 14,000 signatures, it would take weeks and weeks to plan, before you can even attempt to get signature 1, giving us only six days and then faulting us for not getting any signatures with the expectation of 14,000 still in place seems unreasonable, so we've appealed to the ninth Circuit Court."

Breck thinks he will win in the ninth circuit court, and says he has proof from over the weekend that the 400 signatures would have been easily attainable, if that were the original threshold.

"The whole premise for the 400 signatures was to show that there is a modicum of support for us, considering that we got well over 500 signatures on one day, on a Sunday, when we didn't even start until 3:00 p.m. because we couldn't locate a notary, shows that we do have a modicum of support and we do deserve a place on the ballot," Breck said.

Breck said the Montana Green Party gathered around 10 signatures during the initial filing, but that the low number is because the 14,000 goal seemed insurmountable for a start-up candidate. No matter what happens to the ballot, Breck says he will be running as a write-in candidate and that the Green Party will play a role in the 2018 elections.