In Montana, Dems hoisted by own their early-vote petard

In a normal, sane world, a candidate who body-slammed a reporter on election eve would not win in a close race for Congress.

And the candidate who just did that, Republican Greg Gianforte, might not have won in Montana, but for the state's Democratic governor and his attempt to make the election, already an uphill climb for Democrats, as favorable to his party as possible.

In recent years, Democrats have made early voting and all-mail elections a central focus of their election strategy nationwide. In the case of early voting, what was intended as a convenience for people who were going to be out of town on election day has become a madhouse, with longer lines than you'll ever find on election day itself.

The all-mail ballot is a slight improvement on this, because it can be returned at any time before election day. Still, it's clear how the parties feel about it.

Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat far too moderate for the current DNC leadership, used his amendatory veto (a peculiar device that governors have in Montana) to make last night's special election an all-mail vote, like what they use in Colorado and Oregon. All registered voters receive ballots, and can either mail them in or return them by hand. Democrats were certain this would help improve their chances. Republicans openly complained that it could cost them the election. The state party chairman went so far as to say that the measure "could be the death of our effort to make Montana a reliably Republican state."