Nader campaign Oct. 22, 2004 Press Release
For Immediate Release
For Further Information
Kevin B. Zeese
NADER TO APPEAL OHIO SUPREME
COURT RULING
Democratic campaign of harrassment, intimidation
and abusive litigation should not be allowed to stand.
Washington, DC: The Nader/Camejo campaign submitted nearly 15,000
signatures in Ohio to meet a 5000 signature requirement. Until
September 28, Nader/Camejo was on the ballot with more than 6464
valid signatures. The Democrats hired Kirkland and Ellis to
subpoena and harangue our circulators and challenge the validity of the
signatures in an administrative review. This review caused the
total valid signatures to fall under the 5000 required, thus forcing
the campaign to challenge the 8009 discounted signatures that were not
properly examined by Ohio’s counties, in addition to signatures wrongly
discounted.
In a split decision, the Ohio Supreme Court has denied Nader/Camejo a
place on the Ohio ballot claiming, remarkably, that a lawsuit filed
within six days (two of which were a weekend) after being removed from
the ballot by the Secretary of State, should have been filed during the
time in which Nader was presumptively on the ballot or months earlier
to challenge the constitutional infirmities in Ohio law.
The Ohio Supreme Court concluded it “was too late” to force the
Secretary to review its erroneous procedure and change the ballot, in
large part because absentee ballots had already gone out without
Nader/Camejo on it and it “would endanger Ohio’s election
preparations.” The result is that the Ohio Supreme Court allowed
the Secretary of State to avoid processing its voter registration
backlog in the counties and did not force it to reexamine more than
8009 signatures improperly discounted because the 88 counties of Ohio
were not operating off the only up-to-date database, in the capital,
when it reviewed the Nader petitions. As the dissent, which also
found the Ohio law unconstitutional notes, “to assume it is too
late to correct the errors of the Secretary of State is to sell the
electoral process short.” “The law and process relied upon by the
county boards and the Secretary of State to remove Nader from the
ballot are dubious.”
Dubious and unconstitutional are understatements of the Kafkaesque
process the Nader/Camejo campaign has been put through in Ohio after
turning in nearly TRIPLE the required signatures. Perfectly
legitimate circulators and voters have been disenfranchised because of
backlogged databases and other shenanigans. Our state coordinator
had all her signatures ignored because her signature when she
registered to vote at age 18 did not match her signature now as a
50-year old! The only “endangerment to Ohio’s election
preparations” is the truth: This is a nonsensical process where if you
are on the ballot and then erroneously removed you are prejudiced for
not having sued while you were on the ballot (where presumably the
relief requested would have been to be put on the ballot again)!
The people of Ohio have been done a great disservice. The
Nader/Camejo campaign will appeal to the United States Supreme Cour
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Paid for by Nader
for President 2004