The Democrats are trying to throw Ralph off the ballot

September 8, 2000 8:45 AM

The Democrats are trying to throw Ralph off the ballot in Illinois. Other states are too. What'r you gonna do about it?
posted by thirteen (5 comments total)

What difference does it matter if he is in te debates, if you cant vote for him?
The following was forwarded to me by a coworker.
We counted up all of the challenges. Of the original 22,841
signatures, the Democratic machine challenged 9,657. There are 156
missing pages from the challenge sheets, which were either never
turned in or did not get photocopied somehow.

That means they've been challenging about 42% of all the signatures
we turned in. If they continue at roughly the same pace with the
additional 16,000 signatures we turned in (and their deadline in
Wednesday), that means we can expect them to challenge 42% of our
total of 39,00 signatures, which means they will challenge somewhere
around 16,300 signatures. That would leave us with 23,600
unchallenged signatures, below the needed 25,000.

So we have to defend our signatures. Some of their challenges are
weak and we can shoot down their objection. However, we need a body
to do that. This starts up Thursday or Friday (we're not sure which
yet), and we'll need to fill up every station. It could be 12 or 24
stations. We don't know yet.

Wednesday, our attorney Andy Spiegel will meet with their attorney
Michael Kusper and the State Board of Elections to set up the
schedule for the rest of the week. That meeting might happen
Thursday. We're in unchartered waters here, so there is some
ambiguity.

Our attorney thinks that we're probably going to have to defend the
signatures over the weekend. It would start up Thursday or Friday,
and then go over the weekend and then continue on the weekdays until
we're done. It could all start Monday. We just don't know yet.
posted by thirteen at 8:51 AM on September 8, 2000

You'd think the Republican party would be actively working to get Nader on the ballot. Indeed, Nader can only hurt Gore.

Regardless, I don't think that getting Nader on the ballot will really have all that much influence. This election is going to be close - when it comes down to it, I believe most liberals are going to cast a vote for the Tin Man - the prospect of Bush getting into office is just too scary.

At least, that's how I'm feeling. I'd love to vote for Nader (as I did in 96), but in the face of Dubya, I'm not sure if I can.
posted by aladfar at 9:21 AM on September 8, 2000

I am sure the Republican's are glad Ralph is there, but in the end it does not serve their interests to have a viable 3rd party anymore than it does the Dems.
posted by thirteen at 10:02 AM on September 8, 2000

Loyal Democrats are major-league assholes, of course.

Genuine democracy would be served if representatives from at least the following parties were included on every ballot:

Constitution Party
Green Party
Libertarian Party
Natural Law Party
Reform Party
Socialist Party

And a televised debate involving candidates from all these parties might actually be worth watching...

posted by johnb at 4:30 PM on September 8, 2000

Ralph Nader is a national treasure. These Janus-faced Demoncrats are showing their true dark corrupted nature by trying to squelch a voice for constructive change.
posted by ArtieGorFunk at 8:12 PM on September 8, 2000