Grão de Areia - ATTAC Portugal

Nader, o mau da fita

Com 2,9 milhões de votos nas presidenciais norte-americanas de 2000 (2,7% dos votantes), Ralph Nader foi logo lançado à fogueira do voto útil pelos democratas. Se é verdade que ninguém os pode acusar de mau perder - afinal até tiveram mais votos que os republicanos, dizem os resultados oficiais - é mais difícil aceitar a perseguição que movem hoje a este histórico advogado dos direitos cívicos contra o poder das grandes empresas. Sem o apoio do Green Party - também está na corrida, mas com outro candidato -, Nader tem de conquistar sozinho o acesso aos boletins de voto, enfrentando o sistema eleitoral, ou seja, 50 leis diferentes que garantem (ou quase impedem) a luz verde para a candidatura em cada um dos estados dos EUA. Por exemplo, no Colorado bastam 500 dólares para concorrer. Já no Texas, era preciso ter entregue 64 mil assinaturas até ao passado dia 10 de Maio...

Os democratas patrocinam abertamente uma campanha para afastar Nader da corrida, movendo-lhe processos* judiciais em cada estado para anular assinaturas e ameaçando* os angariadores com a prisão, caso seja apanhada uma assinatura com dados incorrectos. Entretanto, repetem até à exaustão que a campanha de Nader está a ser financiada pelos republicanos. Mas uma investigação independente quantificou essa ajuda em apenas 4% do total dos donativos e descobriu que os democratas receberam ainda mais dinheiro dos mesmos doadores republicanos.

Obrigados a concentrar muitos esforços nestas batalhas jurídicas para figurar no boletim de voto, na campanha Nader diz-se que os dois partidos do sistema querem estas eleições marcadas pelo medo: medo do terrorismo e medo de Bush. Ainda acreditam que estarão presentes em todos os estados. E não compram o cenário da morte política anunciada.

* Acesso condicionado por registo prévio (gratuito). Há uma reprodução aqui em baixo.

Nader Still Unsure of Ballot Spot in Many States

By Jonathan Finer and Brian Faler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 24, 2004; Page A09

Ten weeks before the 2004 presidential election, Ralph Nader is mired in an arduous struggle to get his name on the ballot in a host of states he contested four years ago.

Yesterday, Michigan election officials deadlocked over whether to accept Nader's petition to be on the ballot as an independent candidate, which Democrats argued was riddled with fraud, sending the issue to an appeals court.

Earlier in the day, a federal court in Illinois denied Nader's challenge to state election laws. He contended they are too hostile to independent candidates, in part because the June 21 deadline for submitting a petition to get on the ballot is earlier than those of almost every other stateDogged by an unprecedented public relations and legal campaign against him by the Democratic Party and like-minded groups -- which fear that his candidacy will swing the election to President Bush -- the longtime consumer advocate has failed to meet qualifying standards for the ballot in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. He faces other challenges to his petitions in numerous states; 17 more state filing deadlines occur in the coming weeks.

"We wanted to neutralize his campaign by forcing him to spend money and resources defending these things," said Toby Moffett, a lobbyist and former Nader supporter who co-founded Ballot Project Inc., which is assisting with legal challenges to Nader by Democrats in a number of states. "But much to our astonishment we've actually been more successful than we thought we'd be in stopping him from getting on at all."

A clear picture of which state ballots will list Nader -- who in 2000 was on ballots in 43 states plus the District -- may not emerge until early October, when most ballots are finalized.

Many states' ballots are still in flux because of the likelihood of further challenges and appeals, such as in Virginia, where the State Board of Elections rejected Nader's petition last Friday. Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore (R) reversed the decision yesterday.

Despite efforts to thwart Nader, his campaign said he will likely succeed in several closely contested states, including Florida, where he received 97,000 votes in 2000, while Bush beat Democrat Al Gore by a few hundred votes.

"We believe we will be on the ballot in the vast majority of states," said Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese. "But it takes away from media attention we might get otherwise, and voters don't get to hear about the issues, only the ballot access fights. In 2000, we didn't have to waste so much time fending off dirty tricks."

In his last run for president, Nader was nominated by the Green Party and received 2.7 percent of the vote. This year, at the urging of the Democrats and many former Nader backers, the party, which claims more than 20 automatic slots on state ballots, denied Nader its endorsement, leaving Nader to contend with a range of requirements to get on the ballot that vary from state to state.

He did receive the nomination of the Reform Party, which claims ballot lines in seven states, including Michigan and Florida. In Delaware, he has been nominated by the Independent Party, which has a ballot line there.

In several states, the ballot disputes have turned nasty, with Democrats lining up teams of lawyers to scrutinize petitions and allege rampant fraud, and Nader accusing the party of using dirty tricks to keep him off the ballot.

Moffett says his group has raised about $100,000 to fight Nader and is relying on pro bono work from lawyers across the country who have contributed up to $2 million worth of labor. The Nader campaign would not disclose how much the legal wrangles have cost.

In Oregon last month, Nader attempted to round up 1,000 supporters in a day to sign a petition -- one way to get on the ballot in that state. But Democratic activists packed the hall and then declined to sign on, leaving his petition a few hundred names short. His campaign must collect 15,300 signatures by today, and it has accused local Democrats and union officials of threatening petition gatherers with jail time if they turn in names that prove fraudulent.

Democrats in Pennsylvania, where Nader submitted 47,000 names, have filed suit alleging that the vast majority are fraudulent.

Two new challenges were made yesterday to Nader's petitions. In Maine, where he filed just 128 more than the requisite 4,000 signatures, anti-Nader activists are hoping to disqualify him. In West Virginia, state Attorney General Darrell V. McGraw Jr. (D) filed a lawsuit alleging that people collecting signatures for the candidate employed tactics -- including concealing the fact that the petition was for Nader -- that violated state election laws.

Challenges are also underway in several other states, including New Hampshire and Iowa.

In Michigan, Nader was forced to sue for recognition as the Reform Party candidate, after state officials ruled in July that the party's 2000 schism into two wings made it impossible to determine which branch could choose a nominee.

In a separate attempt to get on the ballot there, he submitted a petition to run as an independent, but it emerged that 45,040 of the 50,503 signatures submitted on his behalf were gathered by Republicans. The state requires candidates to collect 30,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot.

A brief filed by state Democrats with the Michigan Board of Canvassers contends that petitions circulated by Republicans were stamped "paid for by Nader for President 2004," which the brief calls "false and misleading," and that many of the people listed are not registered voters, and their signatures are therefore invalid.

The Nader campaign did not send a representative to the hearing, in which the four-member board was evenly split on whether to accept the petition. That meant Nader must make his case in court to run as an independent.

Zeese said the campaign is focused on making Nader the Reform Party candidate in the state.

Nader, whose support in some national polls has fallen as low as 2 to 4 percent, has raised just over $1.5 million as of June 30, leaving him with less cash on hand than accumulated debts, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Nader has yet to run a television ad, but at least two Democratic-leaning anti-Nader groups -- the Nader Factor and Stop Nader -- have waged media efforts against him. The Nader Factor will launch a television ad today in New Mexico and Wisconsin, where Nader is gathering signatures, in which a voice-over states that "Ralph Nader is taking help from the right wing" as a bumper sticker reading "Bush-Nader '04" emerges on the screen.

While Republicans do not deny offering logistical support to Nader's petition efforts in several states, direct financial contributions from those who have also donated to Bush so far amount to $54,300, or 4 percent of the $1.5 million Nader has raised.

Others who have taken to Nader's cause include those who believe that attempts to block him undermine democratic principles.

"It is unprecedented, as far as I know to have a major party campaigning to prevent a candidate from simply being able to run, because it might hurt them in the election," said Harry Kresky, an attorney for the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, a think tank that has filed its own FEC complaint, accusing Democrats of improperly using public funds to try to stop Nader in several states.

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Democrats' Legal Challenges Impede Nader
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE - New York Times

Published: August 19, 2004

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 - Ralph Nader's efforts to get his name on presidential ballots in important swing states are becoming mired in legal challenges and charges of fraud by Democrats who have mounted an extensive campaign to keep him from becoming a factor in this year's election.

Recent polls show that Mr. Nader could draw at least 2 or 3 percent of the vote in more than a dozen states where the race now appears close enough for him to alter the outcome, most likely to the detriment of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, and in favor of President Bush.

With Republicans in several states acknowledging that they are bankrolling and gathering signatures for Mr. Nader, local Democratic parties across the country, aided by a group of lawyers calling themselves the Ballot Project Inc., have initiated mini-campaigns to stop him, state by state.
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"The Democrats are making this as difficult and as debilitating for him as possible, making him expend blood, sweat and tears for every inch," said Charles E. Cook Jr., a nonpartisan analyst who tracks races in every state. "He has only so many hours in the day and so many resources. And to the extent that he's tied up trying to get on the ballots, he's not getting any kind of message across."

So far, only three states have closed the door on Mr. Nader: Georgia, Oklahoma and Indiana. He seems close to getting on the ballot in 11 states, either on the Reform Party line or as an independent, though he could still face challenges in some. He has filed petitions in about 20 others and is awaiting rulings on their validity. He has yet to file in 18 states.

Most of Mr. Nader's deadlines come this month: the due dates for 23 states fall from Aug. 2 to Aug. 24, meaning he has had to meet almost daily deadlines across the country while fending off lawsuits.

He is entangled in an assortment of suits, many in states that may be the most contested in November. He is in court in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and West Virginia, and faces potential suits or administrative challenges in Oregon, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and Maine. He is also in court in Texas and Illinois, which are not swing states but where his challenge to state ballot requirement is diverting his time and resources.

The legal strategies in most states are being developed by local Democrats, but the Ballot Project is helping them to find lawyers to work pro bono and share information. "We're doing everything we can to facilitate lawyers in over 20 states," said Toby Moffett, a Washington lobbyist and former Connecticut congressman, who, with Elizabeth Holtzman, a former congresswoman from New York, is overseeing the Ballot Project.

Because of federal campaign finance laws, the project cannot coordinate its activities with either the Kerry campaign or the national Democratic Party, but the party approves of the legal challenges, said Jano Cabrera, a spokesman, and is closely monitoring Mr. Nader's progress.

In 2000, Mr. Nader won access to the ballot as a candidate of the Green Party in 43 states. Now as an independent, he has to fight his way on in most states. The requirements vary from the minimal in Louisiana and Colorado, which require only that a candidate pay $500, to the more onerous, like Texas, which required 64,000 signatures as early as May 10.

"There is no other country in the world that has free elections that forces a candidate for chief executive to have to wrestle with 51 separate sets of laws," said Richard Winger, an expert on ballot access laws.

In Pennsylvania, a major battleground, Democrats have taken Mr. Nader to court, saying that more than 30,000 of the 47,000 signatures he filed Aug. 2 were of unregistered voters or were forged, fictitious or otherwise defective and should disqualify him from the ballot.

Similarly in Oregon, the Service Employees International Union, which has endorsed Mr. Kerry, said that an initial examination of signatures filed there found that at least two-thirds were forged, had the wrong address or otherwise constituted what the union called "overwhelming and systemic fraud," a charge the Nader campaign denied.

The fight has become fierce in Oregon, with anti-Nader forces telling people circulating Nader petitions that they could be jailed and fined if they submitted fraudulent signatures. The Nader campaign said that its circulators were being intimidated and that 30 had quit as a result.

"Where are the battles?" asked Kevin Zeese, Mr. Nader's spokesman. "Everywhere. It doesn't matter if it's a swing state or a safe state. The Democrats are doing their best to harass us everywhere. Their goal is to divert our resources and bleed our campaign."

At the same time, challenging the Nader petitions is "extremely difficult," said Dan Booker, a partner at Reed Smith, a Pittsburgh law firm that helped build the case against Mr. Nader in Pennsylvania.

The drive by Pennsylvania Democrats is one of the most extensive and offers a glimpse into what it takes to mount such a challenge.

Mr. Booker said that 8 to 10 lawyers in his firm were working pro bono on the case, 80 hours each a week for two weeks, and could end up working six more weeks. The firm also took on more than 100 volunteers.

Working with Reed Smith was a Philadelphia lawyer, Gregory M. Harvey, an elections specialist who has been detached from his firm while he organized 70 volunteers at his end of the state.

The state required Mr. Nader to submit 25,697 signatures by Aug. 2. To help gather them, Mr. Nader hired a professional firm to circulate petitions. In Philadelphia, he also hired homeless people, offering them 75 cents a name up to 300 signatures, then $1 a name, Mr. Harvey said.

Reporters for The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that they had observed some of the circulators repeatedly signing each other's petitions and telling passersby that they could sign any name they wanted.

On Aug. 2, the Nader campaign filed about 47,000 signatures in Harrisburg. The Democrats responded with the equivalent of a statewide bucket brigade: Officials in Harrisburg, under the auspices of H. William DeWeese, the House minority leader, photocopied the 47,000 signatures and trucked them to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, where volunteers began examining them line by line. They had one week in which to file their challenge.

In Pittsburgh, software programmers and data-entry volunteers occupied three conference rooms at Reed Smith, where they created a database of the 47,000 names that were checked against the state's list of registered voters.

In Philadelphia, Mr. Harvey sent volunteers to the city board of elections, where they compared the signatures from the petitions with those on voter registration lists.

In one week, the teams produced a two-foot-high stack of pleadings showing what their court papers called "a wide-ranging and extensive pattern of false and forged entries."

Mr. Zeese of the Nader campaign acknowledged that some of the signatures had been forged but said those were not filed.

"We discarded 7,000 signatures in Pennsylvania that were fraudulent," he said, before petitions were filed with the state. On Aug. 11, James Gardner Colins, president judge of the Commonwealth Court, ordered all parties to meet Thursday to set a date for hearing the evidence. He took the highly unusual step of ordering at least five judges in courtrooms throughout the state to hear the individual signature challenges simultaneously. That means at least five cadres of lawyers for the challengers and for Mr. Nader and probably handwriting experts for each side in each courtroom.

Samuel C. Stretton, a Philadelphia elections lawyer who represents Mr. Nader, said Wednesday that he was "getting nervous" because his own spot check of the signatures was showing that, just as the Democrats had charged, many were not those of registered voters.

"They've put together one of the best organized petition challenges I've ever seen," Mr. Stretton said of the Democrats. He said he would ask the court on Thursday to order a check of the signatures and that if a large percentage were not those of registered voters, he would recommend that Mr. Nader drop the case.

Mr. Zeese said it was "crazy" to have to appear in five courtrooms at once. "This is a perfect game plan for how to destroy independent politics in this country," he said, accusing Democrats of "antidemocratic activities."

Cynthia E. Kernick, another Reed Smith partner, said that there was nothing undemocratic about the effort. "Our role is not to challenge the valid voter, but Nader ought not to be treated differently from anyone who wants to get on the ballot," she said. "He can't just get on because he's a legend. That doesn't give him the ability to make shortcuts."

Publicado por luisbranco em agosto 24, 2004 08:48 PM