[GNC] Re: Ballot Access

[Mike Heichman]

I agree with Elie. Even though having Nader on the ballot will make it much
more difficult for us to attain the 3% of the vote that we will need to
maintain ballot access, I think that this is a matter of principle. I also
believe that our action should be communicated to both the Cobb and Nader
campaigns and to the national Green Party.

Mike Heichman


on 8/6/04 11:10 PM, Yarden at yen.yarden at verizon.net wrote:

> 
> 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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