Posted on 09/28/2004 1:01:05 PM PDT by pkmaine
Tuesday,September 28,2004
Judge rules to keep Nader on ballot
AUGUSTA (AP) - Maine Democrats have lost a bid to keep independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name off the November ballot.
A Maine Superior Court judge ruled that state election officials followed legal procedure in allowing the consumer activist's name to go on the ballot.
In his ruling, Justice S. Kirk Studstrup rejected a challenge by Maine Democratic Party Chairwoman Dorothy Melanson, who said petitions included the wrong name for a Nader elector and party identification forms weren't on the petitions.
Studstrup said state election officials followed proper procedure and did not abuse their discretion when they allowed the Nader petitions.
Nader was listed as a Green Independent in Maine four years ago and got 5.7 percent of the vote for president in the state. Democrat Al Gore won the presidential balloting over George W. Bush. He's unenrolled in a Maine party this year.
Melanson is reviewing the judge's ruling and has no immediate comment.
Nader elector Nancy Oden of Jonesboro says she expected logic and common sense to prevail in the judge's ruling, and it did.
Ah Yuh. Let every vote count!
I JUST READ IN YAHOO THAT NEW MEXICO IS PUTTING NADER BACK ON THE BALLOT AS WELL, HERE IS THE LINK
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040928/ap_on_el_pr/nader
Go Nader!
Amazing!! This is a banner day for Nader!
ABC on the hour said the same happened in NM.
Maine is now in play!
How is this good for Bush? I keep seeing people praising Nader, and acting as if adding another Bush hater to the ballot is good. Nader brings the uninformed and leftists to the polls who are more likely to switch and vote for Kerry in the late hours and he doesn't pull any votes away from Kerry. He organizes groups of people to vote that WOULD NOT VOTE in the first place, then when they get to the polls, they don't necessarily vote for him. If he is constantly slamming Bush as evil, why are we propping him up? He is hurting the Bush cause, IMO; he is not helping.
New Mexico story here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1229558/posts
It is not just about being good for Bush that Nader gets on the Ballot. The notion that one political party or another can so twist the legal system as to try to keep legitimate third party candidates of the ballot is galling to the average American citizen. It works against the notion of open elections and our sense of fair play! Besides even leftist run courts could envision the states' various election reg's being used against leftist candidates so it is better to keep the genie in its bottle. Its a signal that the political activism of the judges in Florida and New Jersey isn't going to be allowed to spread in terms of scope and practice!
On that point, I will agree with you whole heartedly. I don't, however, agree with many on the right that Ralph Nader is helping Bush by pulling votes from Kerry. I do find it very hypocritical of the democrats to fight to get one candidate placed on a ballot illegally, (such as NJ's senate race in 2002) claiming the voters are entitled to a choice, yet fighting to keep Nader off the ballot based on technicalities.
Thank God for the Florida Supreme Court that led the way nationwide for Ralph!!! Every vote must count!!!
/sarc mode OFF/
Unfortunately this is not good news for the Bush supporters. It would be much better if Nadar was not on the ballot at all. He will attract more last minute votes for Kerry here in Maine then he will for Bush. Maine Democrats have received a lot of free press over this issue and they are laughing all the way to the ballot box over the news it stirred up. I am afraid that the new Maine which has been taken over by a bunch of liberal selfserving ideological eliteist idiots will vote for Kerry and real Mainers like myself fade away into the sunset thinking of memories past.
Squire Eaton
The Nader candidacy gives another option to the ABB voters in a state where Jonathan Carter is considered a series candidate.
According to Jimmy Carter's 'Democracy Center' Nader shouldn't be on the ballot.... I can't believe a 'Democracy Center' is opposing letting people vote for someone who clearly has a small but ardent minority supporting him. Again, the exact opposite of what is being preached is being practiced by the Democrats. Depressing the black vote?!?!? What about suppressing the Nader vote?
I think the Nader voters helped Bush win certain states BUT also helped the Democrats pick up Senate seats when there wasn't a Green candidate running.
Good news about NM, but same article stated that he had been refused by Oregon-rats!
I guess "The Ballot Project" is having a little trouble... snicker.
and that Nader train just keeps rollin......toot toot!
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