[GNC] Re: Ballot Access

[Yarden]

On Friday, August 6, 2004, at 11:07 PM, Yarden wrote:

> Hello to everyone who is trying to think ahead in terms of Party 
> building:
>
> I just heard on NPR about Nader's difficulties in getting ballot 
> access in Massachusetts.  I believe that it is important that the 
> Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts protest any Democratic Party 
> attempt to keep rivals off the ballot. Interference with someone 
> seeking the electoral authority to speak for a constituency is 
> damaging to all of us.  The failure to protest unjust bureaucratic 
> regulations is damaging to all who seek justice.  Just because the 
> organizers of the DNC and their cohorts fail to protect general access 
> and participation in political discourse -- to privilege their own -- 
> our refusal to take cheap advantage of Nader's absence from the 
> ballot.  For us to accept this favor from the Democratic Party would 
> be even more disgusting than Nader accepting money from the Republican 
> Party in swing states.
>
> It would be best to get to people who know precisely what is going on 
> before making public any  Party position.
> Elie Yarden
> CAmbridge
>
>
>
> Nader effort to gain Mass. ballot access is in doubt
>
> By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff  |  August 6, 2004
>
> The effort to place Ralph Nader's name on the Massachusetts 
> presidential ballot this fall is "in serious trouble," the state's top 
> election official said yesterday, a sign that the third-party 
> candidate's troubles have extended even to the generally liberal Bay 
> State.
>
> Secretary of State William F. Galvin said yesterday that "it is in 
> doubt" that the Nader campaign will get the required 10,000 certified 
> voter signatures necessary to get the presidential candidate's name to 
> appear alongside that of President Bush and US Senator John F. Kerry 
> on the Nov. 2 ballot.
>
> Galvin attributed the problem to the campaign's failure to meet 
> Tuesday's deadline to submit signatures for certification at local 
> city and town halls because many of the papers were mailed too late 
> and missed the legally established 5 p.m. deadline.
>
> "Because of mistakes made by his campaign in filing their papers too 
> late, I think he is in serious trouble in getting on the ballot," 
> Galvin said.
>
> Nader's campaign disputed Galvin's assessment. "I don't share that 
> view," Michael Richardson, the national ballot access coordinator for 
> the Nader campaign, said when informed of Galvin's statement. "I feel 
> pretty confident we will make it."
>
> Richardson said the campaign submitted between 14,000 and 15,000 
> signatures to local officials and he expressed confidence that a high 
> percentage -- enough to qualify for the ballot -- will be certified.
>
> Galvin's election division yesterday notified the Massachusetts Nader 
> campaign that it faced serious problems getting on the ballot and 
> apprised them of their rights to review the certification process.
>
> Galvin said that his office's computerized system that monitors the 
> certification process showed that Nader had 5,700 valid signatures 
> late yesterday, with most of the communities that would be Nader 
> strongholds, such Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston, having reported.
>
> "We are getting calls and other communications that the city and town 
> officials are receiving them late in the mail, after the close of 
> business on Tuesday," he said. "They cannot count them." Galvin said 
> that, because the Nader campaign is facing a potential problem, he has 
> asked the local election officials to speed up the certification 
> process.
>
> "We want to make sure the Nader campaign can pursue his right of 
> review," Galvin said.
>
> Nader won 6 percent of the Massachusetts vote in 2000. His trouble in 
> Massachusetts this year prompted analysts to note that he is facing 
> difficulties nationally, compared with his draw among the left wing of 
> the Democratic Party in 2000. Nader is frequently blamed for costing 
> former vice president Al Gore the 2000 election.
>
> "It is a completely different political atmosphere," said Elizabeth 
> Sherman, a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of 
> Government's Center for Public Leadership. "Ralph Nader's message that 
> the others are Tweedledee and Tweedledum, that there is no difference, 
> no longer resonates."
>
> "A lot of Nader voters rue the day that they voted for him in 2000 
> because we can now see it has made all the difference in the world -- 
> the Iraq War, women's reproductive freedom, and now big changes 
> looming on the Supreme Court," she added.
>
> But Richardson said it is a Democratic "myth" that Nader cost Gore the 
> presidential election four years ago. He conceded, however, that the 
> concept has taken hold in Massachusetts.
>
> "The hostility on the streets was huge," Richardson said, relating his 
> organization's experience collecting signatures. He said that one 
> female petitioner was physically assaulted in Harvard Square.
>
> "The anybody-but-Bush virus has taken a particularly hostile strain 
> here in Massachusetts," Richardson said.
>
> Richardson also expressed frustration with the Massachusetts ballot 
> access laws and said that he finds most other states far more 
> efficient. He complained that Galvin's office had not responded to his 
> request for forms that would allow him to add Nader's late pick for a 
> vice-presidential running mate, Peter Camejo, to the petitions.
>
> "I have been querying the secretary's office and finally the attorney 
> last week said they would make a form up, but I haven't gotten 
> anything," Richardson said.
>
> Galvin, saying his office "bends over backwards" to get candidates on 
> the ballot, said the charge is "a red herring." He noted that 
> Massachusetts has one of the lowest thresholds for gaining ballot 
> access for a presidential candidate. As for the forms, Galvin said 
> there is no official form that his office can provide the Nader 
> campaign to place Camejo's name on the ballot.
>
> "We would find some way, if Nader were to be certified, to substitute 
> Camejo's name," he said. "The substitution is not their problem. It's 
> whether Nader will be on the ballot." 
> ©Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
>  
>
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