Nader off the ballot in Florida

[Dirty Hippie]

In a tactical victory for John Kerry, a Leon County circuit judge issued an emergency order Wednesday night knocking Ralph Nader off Florida's ballot.

"I've never seen, in 40 years, a more pell-mell kangaroo court procedure involving any of our third-party activities," Nader told the Tallahassee Democrat after the ruling by Judge Kevin Davey. "This is nothing more than a judge responding to the political imperatives of a nervous and corrupt Democratic Party."

The ruling stands for now, but could be reversed later.

Nader drew about 92,000 votes in Florida four years ago. Democratic Party leaders, who unsuccessfully beseeched him not to run this year, have said that many of those voters would have supported Al Gore if Nader wasn't on the ballot. Supporters of President Bush, who won Florida by a disputed 537-vote margin, have helped Nader qualify for ballot position in some states this year.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9614100.htm

[chelsea0011]

1. Jeb won't stand for this.

[Paradise]

4. You got it! n/t

[JPZenger]

27. Florida Attorney General Office's Involvement

Isn't it interesting that the Florida Attorney General's office argued for Ralph Nader's position in court. I wonder why that happened.

Bob Graham a couple days ago described how Jeb Bush is delaying re-instituting the voting rights of ex-convicts in Florida - until after the November election. All these requests to vote must be personally approved by the governor in Florida. Graham said that when he was governor (and when the previous governor was in office), the governor quickly returned the voting rights of ex-cons if they had served their sentence and then had a clean record.

[Frodo]

2. Unlikely to stand.

Based on his decision that the Reform party is not really a party.

[Skittles]

20. disappointed?

nt

[Frodo]

22. Truthfully? Yes.

Nader is WAY left of my politics and I would NEVER vote for him (even if doing so didn't hurt Kerry), but he's a legitimate candidate who earned quite a few votes last time. Ballot access measures are intended to keep the ballot from having dozens of tiny contenders. But Florida had several Presidential lines in 2000. Nader is obviously more legit than any of the rest.

In short - If every ballot should be counted then every voter should be able to choose who (s)he wants. You may remember this was the crux of the Torricelli case?

If you sacrifice principles for political expediency then they aren't principles.

[Skittles]

25. I don't think of Nader as a principle

he is a piece of garbage

[Frodo]

26. Agreed. That's not my point.

The principle involved here is ballot access for legitimate candidates. I'm not voting for Bush either - but I would expect him to be on every ballot.

[Skittles]

29. actually, I cannot understand why Bush is a viable candidate either

that bastard should be in jail, not running for re-selection

[amber dog democrat]

3. excellent.

The pernicious opportunist in check - for now.

[freetobegay]

5. It stands for now

At least it's a start. I think it will hold all the way to the Florida Supreme court.

[Frodo]

7. It doesn't go to the FL Supreme Court

It'll be appealed to a federal court.

[freetobegay]

9. I could be wrong but election laws are State & not Federal

I don't see how this could go to a Federal court.

[Frodo]

12. It's all in what issue Nader chooses to appeal.

And where he want to appeal to.

[Brotherjohn]

16. Tell that to the SCOTUS (Bush-Gore 2000). n/t

[freetobegay]

17. I did!

But they wouldn't listen to little ole me.

[Mrs_Beastman]

6. Here is my tin foil hat theory of the day

Nadar has to be getting some funding from the repubs or Bushies, just to splitter the vote.

I admit, it's :tinfoilhat:

[Misunderestimator]

8. Not tin foil hat at all, of course he's receiving funding from them.

[freetobegay]

10. Thats the truest statement made so far today!

:)

[Skip Intro]

11. Just hang it up ralph. Go have a few drinks with zell and colin,

and morn your lost integrity and esteem.

[geek tragedy]

13. This quote is so funny I puked:

"But Assistant Attorney General George Waas and Richard Perez, a lawyer for Hood's department, said Davey risked "disenfranchising" voters who support Nader."

[Renew Deal]

14. Maybe this is the beginning of the repenting after the hurricanes

And they know Ivan is on the way.

[DemNoir]

15. Nader is in court everywhere

How does his campaign afford it? Oh, thats right.

[Frodo]

18. After further review - Nader NOT off the ballot? Bad title?

After reading the rest of the article, it looks like the judge just issued a temporary injunction keeping the ballot from being certified untill a eharing on the merits of the case (today).

[MUSTANG_2004]

19. While I applaud its affects on the upcoming election

I'd rather judges erred on the side of granting ballot access.

[Neshanic]

21. Hippity-hop into a pouch somewhere Ralphie.

[Cha]

23. nader=fucking republican!

go fuck yourself, nader..you and cheney, both!

[samtob]

24. Bad move IMO

Our DNC has been successful in keeping Nader off the ballot in several states. Frankly I think it is a bad move.

Come on now, this party stands AGAINST keeping people from voting! (remember 2000?) Pure and simple, legal moves by the DNC to keep Nader off the ballot will bring harsh criticism from independents and republicans, and rightly so. IMO

[JPZenger]

28. Rules vs. technicalities

If the Democrats would be using extreme technicalities to keep Nader off the ballot, I would be against it. Those same technicalities could come back to haunt Democrats in future challenges.

However, when Nader submits fradulent nomination petitions, that is a completely different story, and then he should be removed from the ballot.

[samtob]

31. The claim is

there was no convention nominating Nader, Nader and the Reform party are claiming there was.

http://www.wftv.com/news/3702779/detail.html

Don't get me wrong, I wish Nader would just bag it, but, he has no plans of stopping, and facing a multitude of DNC lawsuits to stop him is not good press.

[moondust]

33. It's not that simple.

You think the Republican Party should be able to run as many "opposition" candidates as they can buy and shatter the opposition vote into small pieces? No thanks.

[samtob]

36. ??

What would make you think I feel that way? I am not defending any other party than the Democratic party as a principle. Like I said, I wish Nader would go away, but he isn't. You know as well as I do how the press is playing this exclusion of Nader, he is getting access to more and more media outlets.

Where anyone gets the idea Nader is funded by repubs is foreign to me. I would love to read the source...otherwise it sounds like a conspiracy theory.

Regardless, if the DNC fights Nader every step of the way on technicalities, they are supressing people's right to vote.

[samtob]

37. Having said that

Here is a point I left out... The people that would have voted for Nader, who now cannot, are going to be very po'd at THIS party, not the repubs.

[moondust]

39. Funding.

There have been lots of news stories in the past couple months about big Bush donors making big donations to Nader's campaign. Here's one link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/09/MNGQQ7J31K1.DTL.

Google will get you many more.

On top of that are the cases of Repugs out helping Nader obtain the necessary signatures to get him on the ballot mainly in battleground states that could to be close races. Michigan was one example but there are others. It's more Republican sleaze.

The DNC is trying to stop the Republican Party from further corrupting the electoral process and stealing another election and they should be thanked for that. Voters can always write in Nader. It's not like people can't vote for him.

[Francine Frensky]

35. What??? Please...

The Republican Party is putting Nadar ON the ballots, and you are upset that the Democratic Party is doing the opposite of the Repubs????

Hey, people can still vote, they can still write in Nader, if they want, they can stay home if they want to....

I don't see how this does anything to harm anyone's rights.

If Nadar wanted to be taken seriously he should have stayed with that green party.

[samtob]

38. Credible source please.

Call me stubborn, but I have to see it... Not speculation, not conspiracy, I would love to see the link there. Maybe then, we could drown papers and news outlets with letters to point out this type crooked politics (republican funding Nader)

[napi21]

30. Reform Party is no longer a valid Party! Is that true?

I read the article about this ruling. That's how this judge eliminated Nader...by saying that the Reform Party was no longer a valid PArty. How does a Party remain valid? I must admit, I haen't heard very much about the reform party this year, but then I also haven't heard much about the Greens, or any of the others.

I must admit, I was surprised when I read that ruling. Whatever I expected, that wasn't it!

[robbedvoter]

32. The 92,000 votes in 2000 were kinda like the Jews for Buchanan in

Palm Beach (there were some 4-5,000 Greens in Florida). Of course, no Nader means 92,000 black voters discovered to have a record. Or 92,000 overseas soldiers....

[chromotone]

34. OK by me. He's been on it once too often as far as I'm concerned. (nt)

[AlFrankenFan]

40. hm i suppose it's a good thing

though people will still write him in i'm sure.