Nader earns place on Nevada’s ballot

Kirsten Searer and Cy Ryan

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has enough signatures to appear on the Nevada ballot.

The secretary of state announced Wednesday that Nader had 8,681 valid signatures, more than the 5,000 needed to make the ballot.

Nader's camp declared victory on Wednesday and said they will now work to organize volunteers in the state.

If Nader could win a spot in the presidential debates this year, he could be "a force" in states such as Nevada, said Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese.

But signatures gathered for Nader have been challenged in every state where they have been submitted, including in Arizona, where the state Democratic Party successfully had Nader thrown off the ballot.

Jon Summers, a spokesman for the Nevada Democratic Party, said the party is reviewing the signatures, but does not yet know if it will file a court challenge.

The signatures can be challenged until Aug. 24.

"This seems to be the season where everyone's taking a close look at all ballots, initiatives and petitions turned in," said state Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, who is co-chairman of the Kerry campaign in Nevada.

The announcement on Wednesday that Nader had enough signatures fueled speculation on what impact he could have in Nevada, which is a battleground state.

A poll conducted from July 6 through July 10 by Zogby International found that Nevada has the strongest support for Nader among 16 battleground states surveyed.

The poll of 513 Nevadans found that 5.9 percent said they would support Nader in the presidential election.

Only Arkansas came close to that support, with 4.4 percent of those polled saying they would chose the consumer advocate over President Bush or presumed Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Support for Nader pushed Nevada into Bush's column, the poll found. Bush was ahead of Kerry, 45.1 percent to 43.3 percent. The poll has a with a 4.3 percent margin of error.

Nevada Democrats downplayed the Nader effect on Wednesday. Care said he thinks the Zogby poll reflects too much support for Nader.

"I think there are a lot of people out there who voted for Nader last time who now realize that was a mistake," he said.

Summers pointed out that Nader didn't help decide the election in 2000, when he won just 15,008 votes in the state. Bush beat Gore by more than 21,000 votes.

But Republicans such as Steve Wark, a consultant who said he raised $30,000 to help put Nader on the ballot, say they hope Nader will win votes that otherwise would have gone to Kerry.

Wark said he hopes Nader will get at least 4 percent of the vote in Nevada.

"His impact is going to be tremendous," Wark said.

If Democrats do not challenge the signatures in Nevada, it could be the first state to place Nader on the ballot. Signatures in several other states, including Texas and Illinois, are in the process of being reviewed.

State pollsters said Wednesday it remains unclear what impact Nader could have in the state.

Bush won Nevada in the 2000 election, when Nader pulled just 2.4 percent of the vote.

But even if all of those votes would have gone to Democrat Al Gore, Bush still would have won the state. Bush lead Gore, 301,575 votes to 279,978.

Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, that that "deep polling" that has not been made available to the public shows Bush in the lead in Nevada.

The president got a boost with his visit to Reno in June, Lokken said. Kerry will probably gain ground during the Democratic National Convention next week, and Bush will jump back after the Republican convention, he said.

Carson City pollster Don Carlson said he hasn't done recent sampling in the state but thinks the news of Nader being on the ballot "doesn't help Kerry."

He predicted that the state's 129,913 independent voters could make the difference in the tight presidential election. At the end of June, Republicans held a slight voter registration lead over Democrats, 358,321 to 348,190.

Nader also was on the 1996 presidential ballot and gathered 4,730 votes in Nevada.

President Clinton won the state, capturing 203,974 votes compared to Republican Bob Dole's 199,244. Reform Party candidate Ross Perot drew the most independent votes with 43,986 in the state.

Still, if Nader draws 3 or 4 percent of the vote this year, Nevada could go to Bush, Lokken said.

"He's playing the role of a spoiler and he knows it," Lokken said.

The last step for Nader is to pay a $250 filing fee and complete campaign paperwork by Aug. 13.

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