Nader Submits Signatures for Arizona Ballot

[CShine]

PHOENIX - Ralph Nader's campaign said it has collected more than enough signatures to get on the presidential ballot in Arizona, the first state ballot for the independent candidate. Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said late Wednesday that the campaign collected some 22,000 signatures, more than the 14,694 needed to compete against President Bush and Democrat John Kerry in Arizona.

Democrats, who blame Nader for denying Democrat Al Gore the presidency in 2000, promised to scrutinize the signatures to determine if they were valid as well as examine the petition drive.

"We are going to be putting these signatures under a microscope," said Jim Pederson, the state's Democratic Party chairman.

At stake in Arizona are 10 electoral votes. Bush defeated Gore by 6 percentage points in 2000, and Nader captured 3 percent of the vote in the Republican-leaning state. This election year, Democrats say they have a better shot at capturing the state, which has a Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano, and a growing number of Hispanics. If the state validates the signatures, Arizona would be Nader's first ballot. The consumer advocate has been endorsed by the national Reform Party, which gives him access to the ballot in at least seven states, including the battlegrounds of Florida and Michigan.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=3&u=/ap/20040610/ap_on_el_pr/nader

[LTR]

1. I'll bet most of the signatures...

...are those of Republicans.

[Alexander]

2. I will be scrutinizing these signatures this weekend.

I'm going to just take a random guess that a lot of them will be fakes. I look forward to ensuring that Nader doesn't illegally get on the Arizona presidential ballot.

Also, Nader is paying people to collect signatures, with money given to him from Republicans (including, for example, Ben Stein). This is quite a contrast to 2000, where his supporters volunteered, and didn't need money as a motivator.

Nader is nothing but a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, and it should be painfully obvious to anyone at this point. Bush can't win the 2004 election on his own merits (since he has none), so he's hoping that Nader will siphon off enough votes from Kerry to give Bush a victory.

[Luna_Chick]

6. Mine sure as hell better not be on it

If it is, someone's got some explaining to do..I refused to sign it.

[bluestateguy]

3. I believe the SecState is a Republican

So I wouldn't expect a lot of scrutiny of the signatures from that office.

I would hope that even so much as an undotted "i" or failure to include an area code on the phone number would be grounds for disqualification of a signature.

[pocket]

4. !

!

[AndyTiedye]

5. While Checking the Signatures, See How Many Signers are Republicans

That isn't illegal, but it would make it obvious that Nader is running
a spoiler campaign.