***** Nader Begins Push to Qualify for State Ballots Wed Mar 24, 2004 01:43 PM ET
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ralph Nader's wild-card presidential bid is gearing up over the next few months for its biggest challenge -- navigating a maze of local regulations and roadblocks to qualify for the ballot in all 50 states.
Nader, whose third-party White House run in 2000 was blamed by many Democrats for helping elect President Bush, is hoping to collect 1.5 million signatures of registered voters on petitions for ballot access nationwide -- more than enough to ensure he will make Democrats nervous again this year.
"Our goal is to be on the ballot in all 50 states and we're pretty confident we can do it," said Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese, adding 7,000 volunteers have signed up nationwide to gather signatures for the independent bid. . . .
TOUGHEST CHALLENGE: TEXAS
The first deadline and toughest challenge for Nader will be Texas, where by May 10 he must collect 64,000 valid signatures from registered Texans who did not vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.
Texas is not alone in setting a steep bar for White House hopefuls -- in Oklahoma, 37,027 valid signatures are needed by July 15. But a leading ballot access expert says Nader should be able to get his name on all 50 state ballots.
"It's not a major hurdle for people with either a substantial amount of money or a substantial number of volunteers to get signatures," said Richard Winger, editor of the Ballot Access News newsletter in San Francisco.
He said Nader needs 620,000 valid signatures to qualify in all 50 states -- less than half of his stated goal -- and that recent third-party candidates like Ross Perot and the Libertarian Party have had success.
"If it was all that hard the Libertarians wouldn't have done it," he said.
The five toughest states for ballot access -- Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana and North Carolina -- are all heavily Republican and Nader's presence would have little effect on the outcome. . . .
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4649448> ***** -- Yoshie
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