Nader
for President Press Release
For Immediate release
September 22, 2004
For further information: Kevin Zeese
OREGON SUPREME
COURT REMOVES NADER FROM BALLOT
Nader Appealing to
US Supreme Court
A few minutes ago, the Oregon Supreme Court issued a decision
removing Ralph Nader from the Oregon ballot. The Nader Campaign
is taking steps to appeal the Oregon Supreme Court decision to the U.S.
Supreme Court. In reaction to the decision Ralph Nader said:
“This is a sad day for democracy in
America. It is evident that our independent presidential campaign
has greatly stressed a corrupt exclusionary system and that the
Democratic Party will stop at nothing to deny voters the opportunity to
vote for our candidacy. They would rather limit voters choices in
an attempt to force them to vote for a candidate they do not believe in
and do not support or stay at home in disgust. The anti-democratic
approach of the Democratic Party is weakening our democracy rendered
already anemic.”
The Court reversed the decision of the Marion County Circuit Court,
which had found Secretary of State's Bradbury's refusal to count over
3,000 of the 18,000 voter signatures found valid and verified by Oregon
County Boards of Elections the had been submitted by the Nader
Campaign. The Circuit Court had concluded that the Secretary of State
had applied "unwritten rules" to the Nader petitions:
“These unwritten rules, however
longstanding, are not supported by the written administrative rules as
set forth in the Manual, and they are inconsistent with ORS 247.005, as
well as with the prior policy of the Elections Division as set forth
above. Additionally, it was obvious from the testimony of Mr.
Lindback that the Secretary’s unwritten rules were not applied either
uniformly or consistently in actual practice.”
The Oregon Supreme Court's decision allows the Secretary of State to
use unwritten rules pertaining to the appearance of the circulator's
signature on each petition to disqualify the valid and county-verified
voter signatures on each petition. The decision refers to
"directives" the Secretary of State issued to the county elections
offices but failed to recognize that those directives were not "rules"
but instead were internal directives that were not provided to the
public. Further, there was nothing in the internal directives that
authorized the Secretary of State to remove the 3,000 signatures, after
the counties had all already competed their work.
The Nader campaign will be arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that the
Secretary of State's actions violated the rights of voters and
circulators under the United States Constitution.
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Paid for by Nader for President 2004