Did you see "Fahrenheit 911" ?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2004
Did you see "Fahrenheit 911" ?
522
Tue, 06-29-2004 - 1:31pm

Did you see "Fahrenheit 911" ?



  • No
  • No, but I plan to
  • Yes


You will be able to change your vote.


 

The last time anyone listened to a Bush, they were lost for 40 years!   Looks like we're doomed to "wander" ano

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 10:06pm
Well, you're right to notice that there have been absentee ballot problems in swing states, but the fact that Hannity would suggest some evil Democratic plot just emphasises what shame it is he works for a news network. Does he familiarize himself with the news?

The reason absentee ballots are late in both Florida and Pennsylvania is because there's a lot of political wrangling going on over whether Nader is allowed on the ballot. The Democrats are working to get him off, and the Republicans (and of course, Nader) are working to get him on. In question are the legitimacy of the signitures on his petition (he needs a certain amount in each state to be a candidate) as well as the fact that he's trying to run under different party affiliations in different states.

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04265/382702.stm

Nader's ballot spot in Pennsylvania still up in air

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Continuing the uncertainty over whether Ralph Nader will be on the presidential ballot in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court yesterday reversed a lower court ruling that would have barred him.

In an unsigned order, the justices overturned Commonwealth Court's August decision against Nader and sent the case back to that court for an expedited hearing.

Attorneys for Nader and his challengers are now waiting for word from the intermediate court on the timing and format for further proceedings. Litigators said the most likely course would involve laborious, line-by-line review of the 52,000 petition signatures submitted by Nader in his attempt to get on the ballot as an independent.

But that will be clearer after Commonwealth Court issues a hearing schedule in response to the order and after the Supreme Court hands down an opinion explaining the reasoning behind it.

In the meantime, election preparations across the state are in limbo, as officials await the final word on whether Nader's name will be on ballots. Allegheny County, for example, has already sent out 2,700 military and overseas ballots that do not contain the independent's name.

Nader's nominating petitions were challenged by lawyers affiliated with the Democratic Party. While the submission includes more than 52,000 names, the challengers contend that at least 33,000 are invalid, meaning that Nader would fall short of the threshold of 25,697 needed to get on the ballot.

Rather than reviewing the signature issues, Commonwealth Court ruled against Nader on separate grounds. A panel of the court relied on a state statute that says no candidate can compete as an independent in the general election if he sought a political party's nomination for the office.

Because Nader accepted the nomination of the Reform Party in other states, the lower court reasoned, he forfeited his right to run as an independent in Pennsylvania. It was that finding, presumably, that prompted yesterday's high court decision, but that will be clearer after the Supreme Court files its opinion.

The renewed potential for Nader to get on the Pennsylvania ballot was one of a string of recent victories for the independent, as courts in states including Florida, New Mexico and Maryland have ruled in his favor in ballot-related cases.

In Pennsylvania as across the country, lawyers aligned with the Democrats have pushed to deny ballot access for Nader on the theory that he is more likely to siphon votes from Sen. John Kerry than President Bush. The recent Florida case was considered especially significant in the context of Bush's minuscule 574-vote margin there four years ago.

"A lot of battleground states have been putting us on the ballot," said Kevin Zeese, Nader's campaign manager. "The ruling was nonsensical."

Nader's Pennsylvania lawyer, Samuel Stretton, acknowledged that yesterday's order left significant challenges for the campaign.

He said he was scrambling to assemble a legal team that could be faced with handling multiple simultaneous hearings. Their collective results could influence not only Nader's candidacy, but, conceivably, the identity of the next president. Pennsylvania has the second-largest trove of electoral votes among the states considered up for grabs in November.

One recent survey of the state, conducted by Quinnipiac University, found Nader's support at 6 percent in a three-way trial heat in which Bush led Kerry 46 percent to 42 percent.

An ABC News poll of the state last week put Nader's support at 2 percent, with Bush leading Kerry 49 percent to 46 percent.

The state certified an official list of candidates Friday that did not contain Nader's name. Yesterday morning, just hours before the state Supreme Court ruling was announced, the county's election division mailed more that 2,700 special absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas voters.





iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 10:16pm
Thought I'd add this in case people aren't aware of how the Republicans are working to get Nader on ballots (so it's not just the Dem's holding up your absentee ballots.)


Republicans sue to get Nader on ballot

http://www.freep.com/news/politics/nader26e_20040826.htm

Republicans Helping Nader to Help Themselves

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60340-2004Jul18.html

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 10:31pm
Florida just mailed out their absentee ballots on Saturday, so you should receive it soon. They've been arguing over whether to allow Nader to be on the ballot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/18/politics/campaign/18elect.html

Florida Supreme Court Gives Nader a Spot on State Ballot

By JAMES DAO

Published: September 18, 2004

ALLAHASSEE, Fla., Sept. 17 - The Florida Supreme Court bolstered President Bush's prospects in this swing state on Friday, ruling that Ralph Nader could appear on the November ballot as the Reform Party's presidential candidate.

In a case, and a setting, that instantly evoked memories of the recount battle of 2000, the court rejected Democratic arguments that the Reform Party had not met state requirements for receiving a ballot line. The court's majority concluded that those requirements were vague, but that it would be unfair to punish the Reform Party for the law's weaknesses.

"Any doubt as to the meaning of statutory terms should be resolved broadly in favor of ballot access," the five-member majority concluded.

A sixth justice concurred with the decision but on different grounds, while the seventh dissented.

Mr. Nader is now on the ballot in 27 states, his campaign said, including several closely contested states like Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire and West Virginia. He could appear on the ballot in more than a dozen other states, pending litigation, they said.

In Colorado, a state district judge, John McMullen, ruled on Friday that Mr. Nader had a right to be on the ballot.

"We're very pleased," Theresa Amato, Mr. Nader's campaign manager, said of the Florida decision. "This gives Florida voters more voices, more choices."

Though Mr. Nader has long asserted that he draws both Republican and Democratic support, most political experts and Democratic officials believe he will siphon more votes away from the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry. For that reason, Democrats have been working around the nation to keep him off the ballot.

Florida has been hugely important in that effort. Mr. Bush won the state by just 537 votes in 2000, when Mr. Nader received more than 97,000 votes in the state. Exit polls showed that of the Nader voters who were open to other candidates, two-thirds viewed Vice President Al Gore as their next choice.

"If it is a close race that comes down to a few thousand votes, Nader will make a huge difference," said Jim Kane, chief pollster for Florida Voter, a nonpartisan polling organization.

Scott Maddox, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said the party had no plans to appeal the case. But Mr. Maddox asserted that Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Republican appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, had used her office to promote the Reform Party and thereby help President Bush.

"This case will serve to further illuminate the fact that Ralph Nader is a tool for the Republican Party," Mr. Maddox said. "Glenda Hood and Jeb Bush did everything in their power to get Ralph Nader on the ballot."

Alia Faraj, a spokeswomen for Ms. Hood, rejected those assertions. Ms. Faraj said that Ms. Hood twice certified Mr. Nader as the Reform Party candidate over Democratic objections because the candidate and the party, along with several other minor party candidates, had met the state's legal requirements.

"The Department of State was acting as an honest broker," Ms. Faraj said. "Her primary responsibility was to the voters."

The cast of characters in the Supreme Court building here for oral arguments Friday morning brought back memories of butterfly ballots and the 2000 recount contest.

Laurence H. Tribe, the Harvard constitutional scholar who represented Mr. Gore before the United States Supreme Court during the 2000 recount battle, argued the case for the Democrats. Kenneth Sukhia, who helped on Mr. Bush's legal team in 2000, represented Mr. Nader.

And five of the seven current Florida Supreme Court justices participated in the 4-to-3 December 2000 ruling that ordered an immediate manual recount of ballots across the state. That decision was overturned by the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Tribe even made repeated references to the 2000 struggle, telling the court that a ruling in favor of the Reform Party would create a "chaotic" system that would be "worse than the butterfly ballot.''

"It would be a centipede ballot," he said.

Mr. Tribe later told reporters that he thought the justices would be mindful of the political implications of their decision because they had been accused by Republicans of being partisan in 2000.

"I think they know that whatever they do, it will be viewed through a political lens" he said.

Of the five justices in the majority opinion, three were appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat, and two by Governor Bush. The two remaining justices were appointed by Governor Chiles.

Friday's ruling opens the door for county election officials to mail more than 50,000 absentee ballots to Florida voters overseas, most of them in the military, on Saturday.

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Nader's candidacy here experienced a roller coast ride of uncertainty. After Ms. Hood had certified that Mr. Nader should go on the ballot as the Reform Party candidate, Judge P. Kevin Davey of Circuit Court, a Democrat, issued a preliminary injunction blocking her action. Ms. Hood appealed that injunction and ordered county election officials to prepare ballots with Mr. Nader's name.

Mr. Davey, in strongly worded rebuke of Ms. Hood, then issued at permanent injunction this week preventing her from issuing those absentee ballots. But the Supreme Court stayed his injunction pending its review of the case.

Under Florida law, a minor party candidate for president could get on the ballot either by obtaining more than 90,000 signatures or by receiving the nomination of a "national party," a term that was not clearly defined. Mr. Nader received the Reform Party's endorsement at a convention in August, and based on that, sought the ballot line in Florida.

But Democrats challenged his candidacy, asserting that the Reform Party was no longer national in scope, was virtually penniless and that its convention had been staged with hired students purely to qualify for the Florida ballot. Designating it a "national party" would open the door to any group to have a presidential ballot line, they said.

"Voters need to be able to rely on the law to protect them against sham candidates and sham parties," said Elizabeth Holtzman, a former Democratic congresswoman and co-founder of the Ballot Project, a group that has been challenging Mr. Nader's candidacy in several states.

But Ms. Hood and the Reform Party asserted that the Democrats and their allies were setting an unfairly strict bar on ballot access. They argued that the state legislature's intent has been to increase access, and they urged the court to take the broadest view possible of ballot rules.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-12-2001
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 10:47pm
It wasn't Hannity who postulated that theory, but the caller, as I recall. Typical of the paranoid mindset of the types of folks who usually call in to those types of talk shows, I agree. Hannity's not one of my favorites; I just tune in cause he's on while I'm driving home from work and I get bored listening to music; usually the callers are vastly more entertaining. :-)

Bev

girl in chair
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 10:50pm
The 2nd article clearly says this is not proof, yet you post this as if there is proof. To clarify, some people believe that WMD were moved, but there is no proof of this theory.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 10:53pm
If someone votes for Nadar won't they all go to Bush or himself? XOXO.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 11:55pm
I'm sorry...could you rephrase that question? I'm not following.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-18-2004
Thu, 09-23-2004 - 1:50am
Yes, I am in Germany, and I will be taking your advice if they are not here by the end of this week.

Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board

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Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-18-2004
Thu, 09-23-2004 - 1:52am
Oh crap!

Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-18-2004
Thu, 09-23-2004 - 1:58am
Ahh!

Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board

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