Posted on 10/14/2004 5:07:21 AM PDT by Born Conservative
HARRISBURG - A state court knocked Ralph Nader off Pennsylvania's presidential ballot on Wednesday, citing thousands of fraudulent signatures including "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred Flintstone."
Describing the petitions as "rife with forgeries," Commonwealth Court President Judge James Gardner Colins said that fewer than 19,000 of the more than 51,000 signatures that Nader's supporters submitted were valid. Nader needed at least 25,697 to be listed on the ballot as an independent candidate.
"I am compelled to emphasize that this signature-gathering process was the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetrated upon this court," Colins said in a 15-page ruling that followed a two-week review in multiple courtrooms across the state.
"The conduct of the candidates, through their representatives (not their attorneys), shocks the conscience of the court," he said. "In reviewing signatures, it became apparent that, in addition to signing names such as 'Mickey Mouse,' 'Fred Flintstone,' 'John Kerry,' and the ubiquitous 'Ralph Nader,' there were thousands of names that were created at random and then randomly assigned either existent or nonexistent addresses by the circulators."
The signature review was prompted by a court challenge filed by a group of voters sympathetic to Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry.
The ruling likely will have an impact in Luzerne County, where officials this week agreed to spend an extra $3,100 to print absentee ballots with and without Nader's name.
Bureau of Elections Director Leonard Piazza said the county will not change its plans until it is contacted from the Department of State, which he anticipates will be soon.
County officials had hoped to delay the printing of the ballots because they did not know when the court would make a decision on Nader's candidacy. But because the ballots must be sent out by Oct. 19, the county decided to print them before the decision.
Democrats have had mixed success in their effort to keep Nader off the ballot in battleground states where they fear he could siphon votes from John Kerry. Besides Pennsylvania, he failed to make the ballot in Ohio, Oregon and Missouri but has succeeded in winning a spot on ballots in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Overall, Nader will be on the ballot in 34 states and the District of Columbia.
Nader's unsettled status had caused headaches for elections officials in Pennsylvania's 67 counties as the court proceedings bumped up against the timetable for mailing out larger-than-usual batches of absentee ballots.
Some counties heeded the state's recommendation that they not send out civilian absentee ballots until after the court case was settled, but many counties decided to mail out ballots that included Nader so that voters have time to cast them by the Oct. 29 deadline. Absentee votes cast for Nader are likely to be thrown out, officials have said.
In 2000, Democrat Al Gore carried Pennsylvania, beating George W. Bush by fewer than 205,000 votes out of 4.9 million cast. Nader, the Green Party nominee that year, received 103,392 votes.
Ae c'mon. Let the lil' feller play.
Too bad because the Nader voters will now vote for Old Mr. Botox.
LOL! Pun excused, and laughed at.
I agree. Putting names on registration forms like "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred Flintstone" is unacceptable. They need to do what the Democrats do and recruit from the dead, illegal aliens, and felons.
You know, it's really irritating that the lefties are so prevalent in my state. I’ve decided that I’m going to write Nader in on my ballot, just to lend a hand to the underdog. I would normally vote Republican, but I would love to send a message to the powers that be that the final decision about who should be on the ballot rests with the people. We all know my home state PA is going to go to Kerry, and since a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush… What the heck… If enough people do it, it’ll send a message.
Tinfoil time... could deep-cover Dem operatives have been involved with the Nader petition effort, intentionally stuffing in spam names to get the effort tossed out?
I smell a Dem dirty trick here.
Write in campaign.
So do I. When Michael Moore vented his disgusting fumes - I mean, gave a talk - here in Gainesville, there were several GOP demonstrators in the auditorium. There was also a small group of Nader supporters with a banner. Michael Moore screamed at the Nader supporters and told them to "get the f@#$ out" of the hall. (They left.)
I think the Dems probably did everything possible to keep Nader off the ballot anywhere they could.
Voting for Bush is also a vote for Bush. I think every vote is going to be important, and I don't think you should throw yours away to "make a statement" (that nobody is going to notice or care about anyway).
Won't you feel silly if Kerry wins PA by one vote because the Dems underestimated the level of fraud necessary?
What happened to the dims mantra in Fla. during the 2000 election fiasco? Whoops sorry, I forgot these Nader votes will go against them.
I wonder if there could be a bigger story behind all this. I wonder if some of the signature gathering could have been performed by folks working for other campaigns. Maybe some GOP operatives were trying to help get Nader qualified with bogus names/addresses and signatures. Or, maybe it was Kerry operatives who were collecting the Mickey Mouse type signatures knowing that they would be noticed and would thus sabotage Nader's effort to get on the ballot. Maybe both - it's a crazy year.
Nobody who had gone to the trouble of getting real signatures would allow some jerk to sign his name as "Mickey Mouse".
Therefore the person(s) circulating the petitions with the fake names, clearly, wanted those fake names on the petitions.
This was done by democrats.
Why would any Republican not want Nader on the ballot in an important swing state?
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