Author:
The Nader Campaign
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Date Posted: 10:08:57 09/26/04 Sun
THE FACTS ABOUT NADER'S BALLOT EFFORT IN VIRGINIA
CONTACTS
Rick Johnson—Virginia Media Coordinator
757.874.5732 | virginians4nader@firespring.com
Jim Polk—Virginia Campaign Director
757.589.2329 | jim@votenader.org
While many stories and reports have been circulating, through many channels and venues, about Nader's attempt to get on the ballot in Virginia, few of them have been precisely accurate. Some have certainly been distorted, for reasons which we can only speculate upon. So for the record, the Nader team in Virginia would like to set the record straight.
First, the Nader campaign turned in all signatures on time. Our petitions were delivered to the State Board of Elections on Friday, August 20th, before the noon deadline in accordance with the law. The State Board of Elections accepted them, but then shifted gears and attempted to disqualify the signatures based upon a claim that the petitions were not sorted properly by congressional district as the board had requested.
Over the weekend however, following careful, diligent examination of this claim, the Attorney General of the State of Virginia ruled that the sorting requirement was not enforceable precisely because it had not been established as a law. It was merely an administrative procedure arbitrarily made up by the State Board of Elections, and as such, carried no legal weight.
Second, when the process of counting the legally submitted signatures began on Monday, and despite prior, explicit, and specific directions by State Board of Elections officials instructing them not to interfere with the process, Democratic observers interrupted the proceedings no less than three times without being asked to leave by board officials.
Third, during the counting process, the State Board of Elections officials moved the counting efforts three times to different rooms. During such moves, petitions must be kept together for security reasons, but in fact, they were not. The result, during one of the moves between rooms, was that the file folder for the 4th Congressional District – containing about two thousand signatures - went missing for approximately thirty minutes. The file was unaccounted for until it was eventually located and recovered from the possession of a State Board of Elections employee.
Furthermore, the head of the State Board of Elections misplaced other official documents required to register Nader’s candidacy. While these documents were unaccounted for, a member of the Nader team was falsely accused (by the head of the State Board of Elections) of walking off with them until later it was discovered that the documents had been in the possession of the head of the Board all along.
Now the Nader team in Virginia has, for every second of this electoral ordeal, followed the letter of the law, and the Attorney General of the State of Virginia has confirmed, as of today, that the Nader team has done precisely that. What we wonder about and question, particularly considering that the head of the State Board of Elections is a Democratic appointee, is why the Democratic Party has such sway over the State Board of Elections?
We wonder why the Democratic Party has not been prevented from interfering with our ballot access efforts in Virginia, and as such, we have filed complaints against them with the Attorney General of Virginia.
The Nader team in Virginia has done nothing wrong and we are getting tired of the Democrats trying to spin the truth and make us look as if we are, in any way, at fault for their disgraceful attempt to subvert democracy. We also question whether the Democrats would feel the need to resort to such tricks if they truly believed their candidate was the best choice for America.
And we ask all Virginians to consider, with all the advantages the Democrats have over the Nader campaign in terms of dollars in their campaign war chest, media access, etc., are the Democrats resorting to such tactics simply because they know John Kerry can't compete with Ralph Nader on anything even close to a level playing field?
http://www.votenader.org/
Nader for President 2004, © 2004
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THE FACTS ABOUT NADER'S BALLOT EFFORT IN VIRGINIA