VoteSwap 2004

Nader On NJ Presidential Ballot

1010 WINS: Nader To Appear On NJ Presidential Ballot

Ralph Nader will appear as an independent presidential candidate on New Jersey's ballot, according to the state Division of Elections.

One challenge to keep Nader off the ballot was denied, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Attorney General's office. Loriquet did not know who filed the challenge. The deadline for filing challenges to a person's candidacy was Monday.

Democratic organizations in several states, including Arizona and Pennsylvania, have waged legal battles to keep Nader's name off the ballot.

Many Democrats believe Nader cost them the White House in the 2000 presidential election.

They contend that Nader's Green Party candidacy took votes from Vice President Al Gore in Florida, where George W. Bush won by 537 votes. Nader received 97,488 votes in Florida.

Nader expects to be on the ballot in 43 states, enough to win the presidency.

Michigan GOP gathers names for Nader

Salon.com News | Michigan GOP gathers names for Nader

Michigan Republicans are helping gather signatures to place independent Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot in the battleground state, irritating Democrats who accuse the GOP of trying to pull votes away from candidate John Kerry.

"It's another example of state Republicans willing to try every unethical trick in the book to hold power,'' Democratic Executive Chairman Mark Brewer said Thursday "This clearly shows that a vote for Ralph Nader is a vote to re-elect George Bush. The Republicans know that, and that's why they are desperate to have Nader on the Michigan ballot.''

Nader: Democrats Are Afraid of Democracy

Ralph Nader said Sunday that Democrats who see his independent presidential campaign as a threat to John Kerry's candidacy are really afraid of the democratic process.

Nader postpones Oregon ballot

KATU 2 - Portland, Oregon

SALEM, ORE. - It could take several weeks to determine whether Ralph Nader's June 26 convention in Portland netted enough signatures to place Nader's name on Oregon's presidential ballot.
Under state law, the event must have yielded 1,000 valid signatures from the 1,150 people who attended the event in order for Nader to be listed as an independent presidential candidate on Oregon's Nov. 2 ballot.

Nader spokesman Mark McDougal said more than 1,000 people did sign the petitions. He said the campaign is doing its own check of the signatures before turning them over to election officials for verification.

"It could be a few weeks before people know," McDougal said Thursday.

By law, Aug. 24 is the deadline for the state to certify that 1,000 of the signatures were from registered voters.

Nader Off the Arizona Ballot

Daily Kos reports that Nader's Arizona organization has withdrawn itself from ballot consideration. We will research allegations that many of the signatures turned in were fraudulent.

Close Vote Costs Nader the Green Nomination

Close Vote Costs Nader the Green Nomination

MILWAUKEE — The Green Party chose a little-known California attorney as its presidential nominee Saturday — a serious blow to Ralph Nader and a potential boon to Sen. John F. Kerry.

Nader, the Green candidate in the last two presidential elections, sought the party's endorsement this year for his independent candidacy — a move that could have gained him ballot access in at least 22 states and the District of Columbia. Instead, after days of feverish debate, the Greens opted for David Cobb, 41, by a narrow margin.

It is interesting to note which states have a 3rd party on ballot this fall:

Reform Party (7):
Big swing states Florida, Michigan. Also Colorado, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kansas, Montana.

Green Party (23):
Big swing states Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Also small swing states Delaware, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon. Also Bush states South Carolina, Mississippi, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Alaska. Also Kerry states Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, D.C., California, Hawaii.

That was good news for Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee whose campaign is worried about a repeat of the 2000 election. Nader was on the ballot in most states that year, thanks largely to the Green Party, and he was blamed by some — and thanked by others — for paving the way for Republican George W. Bush's narrow win over Democrat Al Gore.

Cobb's nomination means that Nader faces the arduous task of qualifying for the ballot on his own in the states where the Green Party has a ballot line. Many ballot experts predict Nader will fall short in some of these states, which include key battlegrounds Wisconsin, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico and Nevada.

By nominating Cobb, the Greens have a candidate "with zero name recognition," said Dean Spiliotes, a fellow at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. "It may be a good exercise in building up the party on the local level, but it means the party will drop off the radar. It's a shock, but it is great news for Kerry."

Cobb's campaign strategy also should help Kerry. Cobb plans to avoid a hard sell in the states that Kerry and President Bush are most closely contesting — an approach that some have described as a "safe state" strategy.

His focus will be in states that are dominated by either the Republicans or Democrats, where he has said he will push progressives to vote Green as an "investment" in the party's future. Those states probably will include California, which Kerry is expected to carry easily and where the Green Party has a ballot line.

To qualify as an independent in California, Nader will have to gather more than 150,000 signatures of registered voters.

Green Party co-chairman Ben Manski said the group hoped that by November, it would have qualified Cobb for the ballot in more than 30 states. But a clear rift in the party was created by Saturday's vote, and it might last, say party officials.

After Cobb was officially nominated, many Nader supporters stormed out. Some sobbed. Others cursed and threw their Green Party posters to the ground.

"This is a dark day," said Robert Nanninga, a delegate from Encinitas, Calif. "We've just nominated a white lawyer with a car salesman's smile. It might as well be a Republican. This is going to be remembered for years to come."

Third-party presidential candidates typically attract little attention and minuscule voter support. But with polls showing a close race between Bush and Kerry, analysts and political leaders took careful note of the Green Party gathering.

"The threat of Nader [as the Green Party choice] was real to the Democrats," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. "In critical states … his votes could have made a difference. Cobb? No chance."

This year, Nader was endorsed by the Reform Party, which gave him ballot access in seven states, including the battlegrounds of Florida, Colorado and Michigan.

The Green Party convention, which attracted about 1,000 attendees, had something that the Republican and Democratic conclaves lost decades ago — suspense.

In Saturday's first round of voting, delegates split among 11 different candidates. Most sided with Cobb, Nader or Peter Camejo, a Californian and Green Party activist whom Nader last week tabbed as his running mate on his independent ticket.

After no single candidate garnered a majority vote in the first round, a subsequent slimmed-down list led to delegates giving Cobb about 53% of their votes — 408 out of 767.

"This says that the Green Party, which Ralph Nader has long considered his, has finally gotten out from under his shadow," said Cobb.

"We wish them good luck, but there are still many Greens who are for Ralph Nader," said Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese. "This is not over for us."

Many delegates and Green Party officials said Nader's decision not to attend the convention in Milwaukee helped tip the balance to Cobb. Nader, who is working on his campaign in Oregon, spoke to delegates via telephone at a rally Friday night.

"It was hard for a lot of people to be sympathetic to him, because they got here — and he didn't bother," said Marnie Glickman, a Green Party co-chairwoman.

She added that Cobb, a Humboldt County resident, "spent the time and energy to be with us. [Nader] did not."

Before Saturday's vote, delegates milled through the ballroom of the Midwest Airlines Center, many sipping organic coffee and nibbling on vegan snacks.

As they waited for the candidates to speak, tension between the Nader and Cobb camps was evident.

A female delegate from Michigan, wearing a green Nader pin on her shirt, was walking to her seat when a male delegate from North Carolina stopped her. He wore a green Cobb pin.

The two faced off and begin shouting at one another: "Cobb!" "Nader!" "Cobb!" "Nader!"

By midafternoon, when the votes were tallied and finalized, the shouts among those delegates remaining were overwhelmingly for Cobb.

"We've finally grown up!" cheered David Newland, a Green Party congressional candidate and an alternate delegate from Michigan. "We don't need a media darling to represent us. We can represent ourselves."

Raised in a small town in Texas, Cobb grew up poor and worked numerous jobs until he graduated from law school in 1993. He joined the Greens in 1996, and led the effort to get Nader on the Texas ballot in 2000.

Cobb relocated to Humboldt County in January 2003 to work as a community activist. He launched his presidential bid in January, and said he had raised about $40,000 so far.

"The most important thing to me is the health of the Green Party," Cobb said. "Candidates come and go, but the Green Party must still be here long after Ralph Nader and David Cobb are gone."

Nader won't be on Indiana ballot

Nader won't be on Indiana ballot

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader won't be on Indiana's ballot in November.

"I'm extremely disgusted," said Dallas Stoner, Nader's Indiana coordinator.

He blames Indiana's ballot access laws -- among the toughest in the country -- for setting a difficult standard to reach. Nader supporters, Stoner said, haven't collected even half of the 29,552 petition signatures they needed to have by noon today for Nader to be on the ballot.

GOP campaigning in Oregon for Nader

Daily Kos reports that two conservative groups have been phoning people around Oregon this week, urging them to attend Ralph Nader's convention Saturday in hopes of putting Nader's name on Oregon's presidential ballot.

The groups make no bones about their goal -- to draw votes away from Democrat John Kerry and help President Bush win this battleground state in November.

"We disagree with Ralph Nader's politics, but we'd love to see him make the ballot," said Russ Walker of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a group best known for its opposition to tax increases.

The Oregon Family Council also has been working the phones to boost attendance at Nader's event -- with the idea that it could help Bush this fall.

"We aren't bashful about doing it," said Mike White, the group's director. "We are a conservative, pro-family organization, and Bush is our guy on virtually every issue."

Conservatives Try to Get Nader on Ballot

Conservatives Try to Get Nader on Ballot

By BRAD CAIN, Associated Press Writer

SALEM, Ore. - Two conservative groups have been phoning people around Oregon this week, urging them to attend Ralph Nader convention Saturday in hopes of putting Nader's name on Oregon's presidential ballot.

The groups make no bones about their goal — to draw votes away from Democrat John Kerry and help President Bush win this battleground state in November.

"We disagree with Ralph Nader's politics, but we'd love to see him make the ballot," said Russ Walker of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a group best known for its opposition to tax increases.

The Oregon Family Council also has been working the phones to boost attendance at Nader's event — with the idea that it could help Bush this fall.

"We aren't bashful about doing it," said Mike White, the group's director. "We are a conservative, pro-family organization, and Bush is our guy on virtually every issue."

Even if it comes from an unusual source, Nader can probably use the help, given that this will be his second attempt to win a spot on Oregon's ballot.

In April, Nader held an evening rally in Portland that was intended to attract 1,000 people needed to sign petitions to put him on the ballot. Only 741 showed up.

Nader placed some of the blame on supporters tuning in the NCAA (news - web sites) basketball championship game, which occurred the same night, rather than attend the rally.

The 70-year-old consumer activist plans to travel to Portland for the second convention, which will be held at a local high school.

The move by the Republican-leaning groups to boost attendance at Nader's mini-convention is legal.

State law says that for Nader to qualify for the ballot as independent candidate, he need only draw 1,000 registered votes — regardless of their party affiliation — together in one place to sign petitions for him.

The head of Nader's Oregon campaign, Greg Kafoury, said he's had no contact with the two conservative groups that have been calling people this week. But he said he's not bothered by their actions, either.

If Nader qualifies for Oregon's ballot, polls suggest that he could be a factor in whether Kerry or Bush wins the seven electoral votes of this swing state in November.

Greens Give Nader Thumbs Down

theBakersfieldchannel.com - Politics - Greens Give Nader Thumbs Down

The Green Party nominated Texas attorney David Cobb as its candidate for president Saturday, rejecting Ralph Nader's efforts to secure the party's formal endorsement and likely access to the ballot in key states like Wisconsin and California.

Nader, the party's candidate in 1996 and 2000, had told Green officials months ago he would not accept the party's nomination for president, preferring to build a coalition of third-party groups and independents rather than running under one banner.

Still, he openly courted their formal endorsement as a means to get on the ballot in the 22 states and Washington, D.C., where the party has a ballot line.

But 408 delegates voted for Cobb on the second ballot to give him the nomination.

In Oregon, meanwhile, Nader made another bid Saturday to get 1,000 people together at a Portland high school to sign a petition to get him on the November ballot as an independent. A similar attempt in April drew 751 people.

State Elections Director John Lindback said Nader supporters turned in 950 petition sheets, most of them with a single signature, although some of the sheets contained several signatures.

It was not clear how many total signatures there were, but Lindback said, "Their margin is extremely thin." He said it would take a few days for local election officials to tally the signatures and verify whether they were from registered voters.

"It doesn't matter, we'll get on the ballot," Nader said Saturday night, noting that under Oregon law he also can qualify by mounting a more traditional signature gathering drive later this summer.

Nader's supporters at the Green Party convention argued that an endorsement for him as the only real option for Greens if they hoped to maintain their national profile and play a role in the presidential race.

But Cobb has touted himself as a homegrown Green who would work to build the party from the ground up, while Nader has maintained he is not a member of the party and does not plan to join.

Cobb went out of his way to praise Nader in accepting the nomination, but said later the vote was a sign the Green Party "has gotten out from under the shadow of a man who has probably cast a larger shadow than any other living American."

The party's endorsement would not have guaranteed Nader the Green Party's ballot lines. Rather, it would have given state chapter officials the option of presenting Nader as the candidate of their choice for president to state election officials. Still, that prospect was much less daunting than other means for getting on the ballot.

In California, for example, Nader will have to gather more than 150,000 signatures to get on the ballot as an independent.

Nader tapped longtime Green activist Peter Camejo as his running mate this week, a step his supporters hoped would bolster his chances of winning the party's endorsement.

Many Democrats still blame Nader for President Bush's victory four years ago and fear he could still siphon off enough votes to hand the Republican a second term.

Nader recently was polling about 6 percent nationally, according to an Associated Press poll conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs.

Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said the consumer activist knew he faced an uphill battle for the party's endorsement by electing in December not to participate in the primary process and not sending representatives to the party convention until this week.

He said Nader would now turn his attention to his drive to get on the ballot by other means in states where Greens have access and said Greens will not know until Election Day whether their decision to back someone else will pay off.

Nader already has the backing of the Reform Party, which has ballot access in seven states, but he has yet to be placed on any state ballots.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.