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Ralph Nader ran for the office of U.S. Presidency in the 2004 election, as he also had in several previous elections. In 1996 and 2000, Nader was the candidate of the Green Party; in the 2004 election, however, he ran as an independent candidate.
Nader won the 2004 endorsement of the Reform Party USA, and thus appeared on the ballot as the Reform Party candidate in several states. However, many former state Reform Parties are controlled by a far-right splinter group, the America First Party, which did not endorse Nader. In some states, Nader was on the ballot as an independent candidate, while in a number of other states, Nader was deemed not to have met the requirements for ballot access, and was not on the ballot at all.
Nader on the ballot
As of October 26, 2004, Nader was slated to appear on the ballot in 34 states and Washington, DC, and was definitely off the ballot in eight states (California, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virginia).
In several states, Nader's candidacy in 2004 became a point of dispute in the struggle between the Democratic and Republican Parties, with some Republicans supporting Nader's right to be on the ballot, usually with the hope that Nader's presence on the ballot would diminish the total number of votes for the Democratic Party candidate, and Democrats using a variety of tactics and legal maneuvers aimed at keeping Nader off the ballot. Democratic Party supporters in some states alleged that election officials had placed Nader on the ballot improperly, and they instituted legal proceedings to remove him from the ballot.
The following list, based on information from Nader's campaign website, summarizes whether Nader appeared on a state's ballot, and whether that status had been disputed as of late October 2004, by Nader or his opponents:
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- Nebraska: disputed -- on the ballot
- Nevada: disputed -- on the ballot
- New Hampshire: disputed -- on the ballot
- New Jersey: on the ballot
- New Mexico: on the ballot
- New York: on the ballot
- North Carolina: disputed -- off the ballot
- North Dakota: on the ballot
- Ohio: off the ballot [3] (http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/3842435/detail.html) [4] (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20041026/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_nader)
- Oklahoma: off the ballot
- Oregon: disputed -- off the ballot (Kucera v. Bradbury) [5] (http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/front_page/109594064689030.xml?oregonian?fpfp)
- Pennsylvania: disputed -- off the ballot, (but on the absentee ballot sent out Oct 29)
- Rhode Island: on the ballot
- South Carolina: on the ballot
- South Dakota: on the ballot
- Tennessee: on the ballot
- Texas: disputed -- off the ballot
- Utah: on the ballot
- Vermont: unknown
- Virginia: off the ballot [6] (http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031777804857&path=!news&s=1045855934842)
- Washington: on the ballot
- Wisconsin: disputed -- ruled off the ballot
- West Virginia: disputed -- on the ballot
- Wyoming: on the ballot
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Of the swing states, Nader was off the ballot in 4 (MO, OH, PA, VA), disputed off in 3 (AZ, OR, WI), disputed unknown in 1 (IA), disputed on in 8 (AR, CO, FL, ME, MI, NV, NH, WV), and on in 5 (LA, MN, NM, TN, WA).
In some states where Nader's name was not printed on the ballot, write-in votes for the Nader/Camejo ticket were still permitted and counted.
External links
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