Nader Ballot access:

[The Vorlon]

ON BALLOT:
Nevada
Colorado
Florida
Mississippi
South Carolina
New Jersey

LIKELY TO BE ON (Not Yet Approved):
Montana
Kansas
Missouri
West Virgina
Rhode Island
Delaware

UNDER LEGAL CHALLENGE:
Texas
Illinois
Michigan

POSSIBLE LEGAL CHALLENGE:
Arizona
Indiana
North Carolina

[Lunar]

The legal challenge in Texas is likely to fail.  I don't think he has any ground in Arizona either.

Michigan is a pretty sure bet, if Nader can't get on with the Reform Party ticket then he has stated that he will accept the signatures collected by the GOP.  He has submitted twice as much as needed in West Virginia, so that's pretty sure too.

Many states like Ohio are very easy to get on too (Ohio needs only 8,000 signatures).

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Does anyone know on what basis they claim Nader is on the ballot in SC?  I haven't heard anything that woudl indicate that the State Election Commission had verified the petition Nader submitted and everything points to him not having submitted enough valid signatures.  There is a chance that the Independence Party (ex-Reform Party of SC) could have nominated Nader, but I've seen nothing to indicate that they have.

[??????????]

They should not be giving Nader this much of a hard time about using his American right to run for president. It's really sad when courts try to run off third party candidates like this.

[Shira]

They should not be giving Nader this much of a hard time about using his American right to run for president. It's really sad when courts try to run off third party candidates like this.

and you forgot to add: "Go Ralph, Go".

[??????????]

They should not be giving Nader this much of a hard time about using his American right to run for president. It's really sad when courts try to run off third party candidates like this.

and you forgot to add: "Go Ralph, Go".

No, I'd say "Go Badnarik, Go" before I'd say that. I personally dislike Ralph Nader as most of his views are way out of the mainstream. He was good with his work in consumer goods however.

[cwelsch]

Last I heard he actually withdrew from Arizona entirely.

After the debacle in Pennsylvania (see Politics1 for reference) he can expect a load of challenges and scrutiny there, as well as fines and possibly state investigations.

Drop out Ralph, drop out!

Seriously, he's just hurting himself.  If people see hims truggle to get on 50 or 51 ballots then they will draw the direct comparison to 2000.  Improving on his 1996 performance brought his prestige up, but falling from his 2000 performance takes it way down.  He needs to go back to advocating his stupid regulations and lawsuits, endorse Kerry-Edwards, admit the Libertarians are like 50 times better organized.

[??????????]

Last I heard he actually withdrew from Arizona entirely.

After the debacle in Pennsylvania (see Politics1 for reference) he can expect a load of challenges and scrutiny there, as well as fines and possibly state investigations.

Drop out Ralph, drop out!

Seriously, he's just hurting himself.  If people see hims truggle to get on 50 or 51 ballots then they will draw the direct comparison to 2000.  Improving on his 1996 performance brought his prestige up, but falling from his 2000 performance takes it way down.  He needs to go back to advocating his stupid regulations and lawsuits, endorse Kerry-Edwards, admit the Libertarians are like 50 times better organized.

Why aren't the Libertarians being as badly harangued by the courts?

[cwelsch]

1) They get it sometimes, as happened when they abbreviated the date on signatures that were then invalidated for not having the full date (err, MD or OH did this, forget where).

2) Competency, they had a plan since the last election, an extremely specific plan for 2 or 3 years, and have been implementing it since then.  We also have a number of lawyers who reportedly are pretty successful in ballot challenges.  Better to ignore us than challenge and lose.

3) Invisibility; we are ignored by the media so it would only be a news story to get challenged.  Better to ignore us than challenge and make a news story.

4) Confusion - whom do we hurt?  Traditional logic and some polls suggest we take away from the GOP, many new polls show a lot of potential support comes from Kerry voters, other polls show a lot of potential support from everywhere.  If we don't have a big sibling the way Ralph is just DNC Jr. then nobody picks on us.  If we were GOP Jr. then the might more likely crowd us out and pick on us the way the Democrats corwd out Nader.


Of course, the Constitution Party is also slated to make 50 again for their err, second or third time, forget which.  And frankly they aren't as organized or competent, I've seen their plans online.  The LP has been working for decades, the CP dates to 1992-ish.

I dunno, Perot supposedly got trashed all over the place by Bush in 1992, and I know Dole gave Clinton ANYTHING to keep Perot out of the debates that year.

They probably just think we're not worth it.

[??????????]

I think your party should suck it up take the federal funds. If you get that and get into the debates I bet you would get a good amount of electoral votes. And believe me I'm all for you guys. ABD. (Anybody but Democrats!)

[MODU]

Like I've advocated before, I think any party that can get onto 40-45 state ballots should automatically be allowed to participate in the debates.  That would be "fair."

[Mort from NewYawk]

It seems that Nader has a chance of being on the ballot in less than half of the contested states in which he did well in the popular vote in 2000, or well enough that his vote could be pivotal in a close race in 2004:

MAY BE ON THE BALLOT
Colorado (5.25%)
Arizona (2.98%)
New Jersey (2.97%)
Nevada (2.46%)
Michigan (1.99%)
Florida (1.63%)
Missouri (1.63%)

NOT ON THE BALLOT
Maine (5.7%)
Minnesota (5.2%)
Oregon (5.04%)
Washington (4.14%)
New Hampshire (3.9%)
Wisconsin (3.62%)
New Mexico (3.55%)
Iowa (2.23%)
Pennsylvania (2.1%)

The states where he's not on the ballot are definitely a challenge for Bush, as a lot of these voters likely have anti-war and environmentalist issues as priorities.