Nader - Blackwell I - VII + Conclusion
The following section analyzes the Nader- Blackwell ballot process.
Nader - Blackwell I
Some 2004 election obvservers have argued that Ohio’s Secretary of State Blackwell acted in a partisan manner during the general election, so as to garner for himself copious amounts of media publicity with a view to helping his 2006 governor’s campaigan. As a secondary motive, by virtue of his being co-chair of Bush/Cheney’s ’04 Ohio campaign, he worked in order to help President George W. Bush win the Ohio’s electoral votes.
The undersigned argues that Blackwell operated correctly in the Nader situation. The short answer as to why Blackwell’s actions obeyed the law and helped Ohio’s voters is this:
1) Florida - 36 days
2) Ohio - 14 hours.
In the face of a media zoo, 527's, 3rd party challenges, 1st party challenges, and criminal accusations, Blackwell stood firm and eventually had every level of court prove him right in the Nader lawsuit.
Nader - Blackwell II
On September 28, 2004 about 6:15 p.m. the AP broke with the story that Ohio SOS Blackwell had ruled that Ralph Nader would be removed from the Presidential slate for the 2004 General Election. Already having inundated the public with considerable amounts of rhetoric pertaining to Nader’s status, the various parties would churn out large numbers of Tocqevillian-like lawsuits so as to attain legal victory in their interpretations what constituted the correct presidential ballot.
The September 28th decision occurred after Blackwell had validated only 3,708 signatures, leaving the former consumer advocate 1,292 signatures short of the 5,000 needed to be placed on the ballot. Over a three-week span, beginning back on August 18, local election boards had invalidated 8,009 signatures out of the original 14,473 signatures submitted by Nader's supporters. By September 8, only 6,464 valid signatures remained.
By September 1, the state Democratic party had hired the Kirkland and Ellis law firm to represent it during the normal administrative reviews. Attorney Don McTigue headed a legal team that lined up multiple witnesses, who admitted to signing off on petitions they had not circulated, as well as lending their addresses and names, as Ohio residents, to the forms. Several said they were completely unaware of Nader's existence as a human, who lived on planet earth. McTigue declared to the press-pool on September 1,
“Well, A review of petitons by a handwring writing experts has disclosed about a dozen forged signatures… There is some precedent in Ohio, actually a 1913 supreme Court case, that permits elections officials to invalidate whole elections ballots by the same circulator, where it is shown that there are numerous examples of misrepresentations. We think that we will be able to show that. [Butler County] has knocked out over 90%... Our interest, here, is ensuring that voters have a choice between all legitimate candidates. And by legitamate I mean those who have followed Ohio law to get on the ballot.”By using the terms ‘forged,’ ‘misrepresentations,’ and illegitimacy in the election war of words, McTigue hopes to link negative emotions in regards to inciting reactions to Nader’s candidacy. Not sure if they would win at the hearings, the Democratic strategy adhered to the usual election laws: verbally tar-and-feather your opponent in order to drive up his negative poll-numbers.
Kevin Zeese, spokesman for Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader, answered McTigue’s charges by declaring
“Here you have Ohio registered voters taking the time out to stop and sign to put Nader’s name on the ballot and the Democrats are saying we don’t care what you want, we are going to make sure you don’t have that choice… And neither party of the two major parties wants a candidate on the ballot who favors an end of the war and occupation of Iraq; who favors health care for all; living wage for all; and who is really challenging corporate control of our government.”Zeese aimed to implant into the public consciousness the idea that Democrats refuse to let the voters make an honest choice for POTUS. Zeese’s strategy was the reverse of the Democratic one.
Nader - Blackwell III
McTigue spun on September 15th, the day before the hearings,
“What we will be proving at the hearing is that on many of these petitions there is false information provided regarding the circulator. That is something the boards would not catch. This is a problem of his [i.e., Nader’s] own making. He used paid circulators, and paid circulators are notorious for these kind of mistakes.”Again the use of negative words such as ‘false,’ ‘problem,’ ‘notorious,’ and ‘mistake.’ Entirely appropos in their defeat would be the Democratic defeat in Ohio because the paid employees from ACT, Soros’ minions, and other Democratic 527’s would register less voters than would the Rove-Mehlman directed volunteers.
Zeese rejoindered to the Democratic comments,
“They knew what they were signing for. The views of the voters should come first. If voters want Ralph Nader and Peter Green on the ballot, that should be allowed… You’re seeing both Repub-licans and Democrats, two wings of the coroporate party, trying to keep us off the ballot.”Attempting to shift the vocus to the Democratic thievery as well as to placing Republican, as opposed to national, interests first, the Nader camp decried the subversion tactics of the two major parties
Nader - Blackwell IV
On the day of the hearings, September the sixteenth, the Democrats under the suspices of lawyer Andrew Clubock characterized them as follows,
“Every citizen of Ohio should be shocked and outraged by what’s gone on. Democrats , Republicans, Nader supporterss, and Ralph Nader himself should all agree that elections in this country have got to be fair and free from fraud."Hoping to associated in the public’s mind not only the parallel ideas of freedom and fairness with the Democratic party, but also the the ideas of crookery and desperateness, Clubock feigned innocence at what the hearings produced in regards to the activities of JSM, inc.
When asked if the signed petitions would be withdrawn, Kevin Zeese’s response to Clubock’s accusations was,
Absolutely not. We deserve to be on the ballot. The voters deserve to have a choice. Democrats should start competing.Zeese again advocated the issue of Democratic cheating and their attempts at voter suppression.
In testimony at the hearings, the SoS discovered that for twenty dollars Jill Lane of Dayton signed the petition in place of her Calfironia cousin Michael Jones. She stated,
“He said, ‘well beforehand if you don’t mind, would you sign the bottom so we can turn them in, because we’re not allowed to sign that part. I did asked him if it was all right. He said ‘yeah cousin, all the years I been comin’, you know…”Partially aware of her cousin’s doubtful request, Lane expressed doubt about the legality of her cousin’s actions. She did, however, sign the petition upon her cousin’s assurances of legality.
Democratic attorney Clubok further analyzed the first day of testimony in the following manner,
“I think anyone who witnessed it or heard it would be stunned, shocked, outraged that people from out of state would come in here and try to subvet the elections process by comitting various fraud. You heard about falseification. You heard about deception.”Again the Democrats hope in the battle of words to link in the public consciousness the corruption of Nader and his minions by using such terms as “stunned, shocked, outraged,” “subvert,” “fraud,” and “falsification.”
Nader Attorney Daniel Hillson responded that no fraud was linked unto Nader’s campaign,
“You heard every single witness say not only were they not associated with Ralph Nader, they don’t even know who he is. What we’ve proven so far, is that we have one family in Dayton Ohio, that basically committed election fraud. There has been no evidence that any of these individuals acted on behalf of the Ralph Nader campaign. In fact election testimony directly stated they did not. They don’t even know who Ralph Nader is."Seeming to realize that the proverbial hand-writing was on the wall in respect to achieving victory in the fradu-hearings, Nader’s campaign planned to separate itself from any fraud accusations.
Nader - Blackwell V
Finally, on Tuesday the 28th, Gretchen Quinn, elections counsel for Blackwell's office, ruled after four days of testimony in the Secretary's offices, that an additional 2,756 signatures were invalid. Thus Blackwell approved of the invalidation of 10,765 pro-Nader signatures .Nader spokesman, Kevin Zeese, claimed that the elections boards had wrongly invalidated about 1,300 of the 8,009 signatures. Nader and his supporters planned to appeal to the Supreme Court. JSM, inc., the company with which Nader had signed a contract to collect the signatures, could not be reached at its Florida phone listing. Nader and his attorneys had previously agreed to toss out 400 signatures when it became apparent that a California employee of JSM, inc., had improperly collected them.
Ohio Republicans projected an air of un-concern about the whole affair. Jason Mauk, Ohio GOP spokesman, stated that the party remained unconcerned about the entire case. Ohio's BC '04 spokesman Kevin Madden declared
"Our campaign is focused on building our grass-roots organization and getting the president's positive message out to the people of Ohio."He laid no claim to any knowledge about the hearing and declined to comment on the difference that Nader's presence might have on the ballot.
Democrats called the ruling a fair one and proclaimed that Nader's petitioners were out-of-bounds. Dan Trevas, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, described the whole issue as moot. He said,
"it's a question we'll never know the answer to because Ralph Nader chose to break the law in an attempt to get on the ballot... [We] started getting calls from our folks at county fairs and in the streets of Ohio that this activity looked sus picious. The more we dug, the more it looked rotten."Having achieved the legal victory they desired, Democrats endeavored to turn off voters in their emotions and intellects as regards Ralph Nader since he still remained on some 36 state ballots.
Filing a false signature is a prosecutable felony in Ohio as is when an out-of-state persons works as a petition/signature filer in Ohio. No felony charges were ever filed as a result of this SoS hearing.
Nader - Blackwell VI
Six days after Blackwell’s ruling, Nader and his supporters filed a motion of appeal in the Ohio SC on Tuesday October 4, to get his name placed back onto the Ohio ballot.Nine days after Ohio SOS Blackwell removed Nader from the presiental slate, Nader sued the state on Thurs, October 7 in a U.S. District Court of Appeals. Nader argued that the 1,971 signatures, which Blackwell invalidated because the circulator lived out-of-state, had had their constituional rights violated.On Tuesday October 12, Blackwell decided to contend the lawsuit in court because
"Ohio law requires that circulators of candidate petitions be Ohio voters... That is the law of the state and that will continue to be the law of the state until it is changed."This latter fact came to light when Democrats had presented valid evidence that the petitioners registered at fraudulent addresses or places where they did not live.
Nader also planned to ask the SC to force county boards of elections to double-check their voter rolls for recently registered voters, who had not only signed Nader's petition but also whose names were left off of election rolls owing to a backlog of newly registering voters. Nader did not deny that the rest of the signatures were invalid but that only the 1,971 should be made valid b/c a circulator's place of residence should not matter.
On Tuesday October 12, 2004 U.S. Judge Edmund Sargus, a Clinton appointee, ruled against Nader in deciding that the fraud outweighed the constitutional issues Nader raised. He wrote,
"Regardless of how the Court would resolve the question of whether a state law requiring circulators to be state residents is constitutional, the fact remains that the signatures would be excluded on the grounds of several forms of fraud on the part of the circulators."He explained that absent any sign of fraud, especially pointing to the "unclean hands" of Nader's signature organization, he stated that he would gladly rehear the case on constituional grounds.
Sargus’ ruling, handed down just a half-hour after he heard oral arguments in the case, upheld a Sept. 28 decision by Ohio SoS Blackwell removing Nader from the Nov. 2 ballot.
The Democratic attorney, Andrew Clubok citing "rampant fraud" on the part of the Nader organization had asked the court to delay its hearing. They cited a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which said a federal court should not interfere with a pending state case except in unusual or drastic circumstances.
Sargus ruled
"This is a federal election. The hour is late and if this court were to abstain, no federal court would be able to take action."The judge thus contradicted the latter Democrat petition since to avoid action, would open the door for electoral chaos to enter in.
In 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that a Colorado law requiring petition circulators to be registered voters was unconstitutional. A court majority, however, declined to address whether the Colorado law requiring circulators to be state residents is unconstitutional."In view of the [1999 decision], it appears clear that the requirement of Ohio law that circulators be registered is unconstitutional," Judge Sargus wrote. Thus Sargus made his decision so as to end to the whole mess, however, he expressed a lack of confidence in the constitutionality of his own decision. His decision can be described, then, as oxymorinc. Furthermore, the Dems agreed with and liked Blackwell in hin his interpretations of this case since he upheld Ohio law, however, they would "change" their mind about him later.
Nader - Blackwell VII
On Weds, October 13 Nader appealed the case to the 6th U.S. Circut Court of Appeals, which issued its ruling on Tuesday October 19, stating:
"The state administrative hearing officer found substantial evidence of fraud by the petition circulators which is supported by the evidence."The three-judge panel also wrote that Nader failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success in his case.Nader's spokesman Kevin Zeese stated the final decision rested with Ohio's Supreme Court. Nader's lawyers Kevin Cassidy and Mark A. Brown could not be reached for comment.
On Friday October 22, Nader asked the US Supreme Court to review Ohio's decision to remove him, arguing that a state law requiring people who collect signatures on candidates' petitions be registered voters, violated free speech rights. After hearing Nader’s request, Justice John Paul Stevens sent the matter to the full court.
On Saturday October 23, the Ohio SC rejected the appeal of Ralph Nader in a 6-1 decision. They stated that Nader’s campaign had filed its complaint too late and submitted it to the wrong place. He should have instead made his case earlier to Ohio SoS Blackwell. The court concluded that putting Nader on the ballot "at this late date would endanger Ohio’s election preparations."
Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, in a dissenting opinion, stated that a properly certified Nader should be placed onto the Ohio ballot "because his supporters have the right to be heard as much as supporters of the other candidates."
On Tuesday October 26 the US Supreme Court declined to put independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot in the battleground state of Ohio. The justices denied the request without comment on Tuesday.
Nader had by this point also lost his battle to be placed on the Pennsylvania ballot, thus leaving him on only 34 states (New Mexico and Oregon removed him too).
Nader - Blackwell Conclusions
In the end the Courts upheld Blackwell's allegations of fraud on the part of Nader's workers. Howwever, neither Nader himself nor his campaign ever were aware of the fraud by JSM, inc.
Judge Sargus practically delcared Ohio's circulator's law, which denied out-of-state circulators from collecting signatures, to be unconstitutional. However, the circulators' signatures contained too much fraud to be considered valid.
Therefore, we can conclude the following about the whole Nader v. Blackwell boxing match:
1. Blackwell and the Dems were correct on the observing fraud in the collecting of signatures, though the problem rested with JSM, inc., not Nader.
2. Blackwell somewhat lost as regards his interpretation of Ohio's circulator law.
3. Let there be no doubt that part of this Dem move occurred for purposes of getting power, and that angered the 3rd party candidates.
4. Nader could have filed for write-in status in Ohio but he missed the deadline because he assumed that his lawsuits would win.
5. The generally even-handed consumer advocate Nader errupted in anger at Blackwell by demanding that the SoS resign in disgrace because
"When people are standing in line for four or five hours and they are told they've go to stand in line for another five hours and they leave because they've got to go to work or they got to pick up their child at day care, that's a constitutional crime."Nader’s allegations of constitutional criminality on the Blackwell’s part were eerily prescient as a prelude to statements made by many both during and after the November 2. Standing in line for a long time, however, is not unconstitutional, since roller coaster rides such as the ones currently operating at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio could not be ridden by anyone at all.
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