Posted on 09/20/2004 3:05:43 PM PDT by HAL9000
LITTLE ROCK — A judge on Monday ordered presidential candidate Ralph Nader stricken from the Nov. 2 ballot, ruling that Nader backers failed to properly disclose his party affiliation while collecting signatures.
Nader's supporters should have disclosed that Nader would run for the Populist Party. No specific party was listed as canvassers collected 1,286 signatures. State law requires it, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox ruled.
Nader's campaign said it would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
"We'll continue to fight in Arkansas. We think this is a mistaken decision and we'll appeal it to ensure that voters of Arkasnas have more choices and not less," Nader campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese said. "In the end, we're going to win. There's no basis for it, we have enough signatures. We expect to be on the ballot in Arkansas."
State Democratic Party chairman Ron Oliver said he was "pleased and gratified" with the ruling.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas had challenged the petitions, saying that 360 signatures could not be matched in a state voter database. Fox said the Democrats needed to invalidate 287 signatures for their petition to be successful, but didn't reach that mark.
But in addressing the case, Fox ruled that Nader's supporters failed to properly identify the party for whom Nader would run. Nader's supporters said they were using signature forms provided by the state and that they, therefore, should be accepted.
According to Fox, Nader's "'political group' did not have a formal name and didn't think they needed one." As they worked for Nader, the group believed its most important aim was to collect signatures.
Fox said that, after Nader backers were sued, they identified themselves as members of "The Better Life." Later, the group called itself "The Populist Party."
Fox also said it wasn't clear whether Nader's group was the same as the Populist Party that had candidates as recently as 1988, and that state law prohibited names that could lead to confusion.
Fox ordered Secretary of State Charlie Daniels to immediately recall the state's official list of candidates and take off the names of Nader and running mate Peter Camejo.
Through the case, Nader's lawyers argued that they followed the forms that were provided to them. Fox's decision came despite comments he made last week that were sympathetic with the position of Nader supporters.
Fox said it was "a shame" that people outside the mainstream political system have such a difficult time fulfilling their need to express their political voices.
The Republican Party of Arkansas said the Democrats' attempt to knock Nader off the ballot fit a pattern of wanting to limit people's choices in elections.
"Nader got over 13,000 votes in 2000, and that means at least 13,000 Arkansans will not have their choice on the ballot again this year thanks to the Undemocratic Party of Arkansas," said Gov. Mike Huckabee, who heads the Bush-Cheney campaign in Arkansas. "The Democrats' ploy is simple: deny people the right to vote on a candidate by political hardball or taking them to court."
The governor noted court challenges by Democrats to get other candidates tossed from the ballot, including one this year in which Fox dismissed a lawsuit challenging Republican Timothy Hutchinson's qualification to run for a state House seat in northwest Arkansas.
Democrats welcome all candidates who follow the law, Oliver said, noting the party's efforts to disqualify Democrats from the ballot. In May, a judge sided with the Democratic Party in its argument that Richard Percifull, a Democrat, failed to meet residency requirements to run for the state House in Ouachita County.
Oliver also accused state Republicans of trying to use Nader to take votes away from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in Arkansas.
Last month, Democrats cried foul after finding signatures of at least 26 Republican politicians, party staff or their spouses on petitions to put Nader on the November ballot.
"They're the ones that wanted to muddy the waters," Oliver said. "They're the ones who wanted to try to help inject somebody in the race that would take away from John Kerry."
Judges in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Virginia have ordered Nader off the ballot, and in Missouri he did not gather enough signatures to be put on the ballot. Nader's candidacy has been upheld in Colorado and Florida. A lawsuit challenging Nader's candidacy is also pending in New Hampshire.
So far, Nader has met requirements to appear on the ballot in eight other states being actively contested by Bush and Kerry this year.
Those states — Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Washington and West Virginia, along with Colorado and Florida through his Reform Party nomination — have seen the Bush and Kerry campaigns spend millions buying ads and organizing grass-roots supporters to get out the vote in a race that could be as close as the 2000 election.
I guess freedom of choice and fair election practices are not high on the DNC's list of "issues" this year. . .
the good news is that W doesn't need nader to win in AR. The bad news is that free elections should be our top priority, and for some it evidently ain't.
Amazing how these Dems are getting away with saying the GOP wants to disenfranchise voters, etc., all the while SUING so they don't have to run against a candidate they don't like.
You should see what our criminal Commie Secretary of State Bradbury has done here in Oregon.
He sabotaged the Naderites' convention so they couldn't get enough people in the building to come up with the required 1000 signatures.
Then he twisted the election laws to try to claim that their subsequent petition gathering was invalid.
They took him to court and got his ruling thrown out.
Now he's appealing the ruling - solely to try to push the case past the deadline for getting the ballots printed.
There have been a couple of postings on this here... the details are even more sordid than what I mention above. I'm not sure what the current legal status is, but the whole situation is proof beyond any doubt that the Demonrat Party is just a big criminal conspiracy.
the good news is that W doesn't need nader to win in AR.
It's going to be close thanks to the Dims propaganda machine. We're a battleground state , remember? Northwest AR will go with W but Eastern AR votes Dim.
It won't be close enough to need nader IMHO.
I'm so confused...
-PJ
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