Nader wins suit to stay on Nevada ballot

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 2:20 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A district judge, rejecting efforts by the Democratic Party, ruled today that Ralph Nader should remain on the state's general election ballot as an independent candidate for president.

District Judge Bill Maddox, after hearings covering three days, said there were at least 7,000 valid signatures of registered Nevada voters on the petition to qualify Nader for the ballot. The law required Nader get 5,000 signatures.

Rebecca Lamb, executive director of the state Democratic Party of Nevada, which sued to keep Nader off the ballot, had no immediate comment when asked whether the decision would be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Theresa Amato, national campaign manager for Nader, said she welcomed Maddox's decision. "This is an orchestrated assault by the Democrats against ballot access to those voters who want choices."

She said the Democrats are practicing "an abuse of power that is not in the best interests of the voters."

Democrats fear Nader could take votes away from John Kerry in a close election. Recent polls in Nevada show Nader getting 2 percent to 4 percent, with Kerry and President Bush running neck-and-neck.

Supporters of Nader gathered 11,888 signatures of voters in Nevada, and the Clark County Registrar of Voters said after a count that 8,631 were valid, qualifying Nader for the ballot.

Paul Larsen, representing the Nevada Democrats, contended ineligible voters were counted, petitions were defective, and fraud and misrepresentation occurred in gathering the signatures by petition circulators of a firm named JSM Inc. headed by Jennifer Breslin of Florida.

Larsen suggested a review of the signatures showed there were only 3,505 legitimate signers.

But Keith Loomis, attorney for Nader, told Maddox, "Democrats are trying to gum up the works on technicalities." He said there were 9,000 signatures of registered voters that should be counted on the petition.

A key issue in the case were petitions bearing the signatures of 3,529 registered voters and whether they should be counted because the circulator had put his residence as a hotel in Las Vegas and not his "legal domicile" that was probably in another state.

Maddox ruled that the regulations of the secretary of state's office require the circulator, when signing the document, put down his residence, not his legal domicile. So those petitions bearing those signatures should be counted.

Larsen had argued those circulators should have been required to put their real home address on the petitions so they could be contacted later and questioned about the petitions or even subpoenaed to answer inquiries how the process was conducted.

Maddox characterized these petition circulators as "carnival workers" and some of them "are not upstanding citizens." But he said the regulation does not require the "legal domicile" to be written down. And he said there's no authority to subpoena these people who live out of state.

Maddox said he was following a precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in a Colorado case, but that the court did "a disservice" when it ruled that the circulators did not have to be registered voters or residents of the state where they were working.

Maddox disqualified the signatures of 559 people who registered to vote after they signed the petition. He said 2,719 who signed were not registered to vote. He disqualified 64 signatures that he said were obtained by misrepresentation and six signatures that were forgeries.

Renee Parker, chief deputy secretary of state, said the ruling by Maddox was a fair one. She said she would ask the next Legislature to specify that the circulator must disclose his legal domicile.

Maddox said early in the case he was making a record at the proceeding in the expectation that the case would be appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Amato said the Nader campaign hopes to qualify in 43 states and the District of Columbia. She said the qualifying process ends Sept. 16 across the nation. She said the Nader organization won a place on the ballot in Iowa last week.