Ralph Nader's effort to gain access to the Nov. 2 presidential ballot continues, with varying degrees of success in the states.

In addition to having to meet different ballot requirements in each state, Nader has also faced legal challenges in many states from local Democratic Party officials who fear that the consumer activist will pull votes away from their candidate, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Interviewed for an Associated Press story earlier this week, Adam Schiffer, a political science professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said the Democrats' efforts could backfire with the biggest Nader supporters.

"There will be some inevitable backlash, but how far it spreads beyond the hard-core Nader supporters to independent voters in general, to say, 'Look what Kerry's doing to squelch democracy,' that depends on the spin," said Schiffer, who studies the effect of the media and polls on elections.

He said polls in 2000 suggested that a significant number of Nader backers "got cold feet in the voting booth and decided, 'I have to vote for the lesser of the two evils.'" That might not happen this time if those voters think Kerry actively limited their choice of candidates.

As for other independent voters, Schiffer said the perception of what happened to Nader's candidacy could hold the key. Democrats want voters to believe Nader wouldn't be on various state ballots if not for Republican wrangling, while Republicans say Democrats are trying to limit independents' voice.

Below is a roundup of recent state developments.

Alabama
MONTGOMERY — Presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Michael Badnarik have secured spots on Alabama's general election ballot, which gives voters a choice of five people.

The secretary of state's office announced late on Sept. 14 that workers had finished verifying voter petitions from both campaigns. State law required independent and third-party candidates to submit the signatures of 5,000 registered Alabama voters by Sept. 7, and their campaigns turned in petitions on the final afternoon.

Badnarik is the candidate of the Libertarian Party, but under state law he will appear on Alabama's ballot without a label.

The Constitution Party turned in signatures for its candidate, Michael Peroutka, last month and won approval to get him on the ballot. Like Badnarik, his name will appear without a party label.

The three will be the only other presidential candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot with Republican George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry.

Supporters of Green Party candidate David Cobb failed to get enough signatures to get him on the ballot.

Anne Permaloff, a political scientist at Auburn University Montgomery, said having the candidates on the ballot would have no impact on the outcome in Alabama. But for Nader, "it's a symbolic victory because he's been shut out in so many states" by Democrats who don't want him to pull votes from Kerry.

Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK — The state Supreme Court yesterday ordered a halt to the printing of presidential ballots until it decides whether Ralph Nader's name can appear on Arkansas' November general election ballot.

The high court ordered the secretary of state's office to advise county election officials not to print ballots relating to the presidential contest until further notice.

The court also scheduled oral arguments for Sept. 30 on Nader's appeal of a circuit judge's order to drop Nader's name from the Nov. 2 election ballot.

Yesterday's directive followed arguments before the court on the Populist Party of Arkansas' request for a stay of the order that Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox issued on Sept. 20. Fox directed the removal of Nader's name from ballots distributed in the state's 75 counties.

Fox ruled in a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party of Arkansas that Nader should not be on the ballot because people who signed petitions to get him on the ballot did not formally name him as their personal choice for president.

Nader's lawyers argued in court papers that Nader running mate Peter Camejo's name was improperly stricken from the list. They said Fox's order did not address Camejo's ballot status.

The absence of a presidential candidate created a vacancy for the office of president that should have been filled by the Populist Party of Arkansas under state law, they argued.

Nader lawyer Sam Hilburn asked the high court yesterday for a stay of Fox's order that would have allowed county clerks to print ballots with Nader's name on them pending oral arguments on Nader's appeal of Fox's decision.

Arizona
PHOENIX — A judge on Sept. 10 rejected Ralph Nader's request to appear on Arizona's ballot and refused to give the independent presidential candidate another chance to gather signatures to compete in this battleground state.

Even though Nader supporters gathered more than enough voter signatures, they abandoned their effort to compete in Arizona after Democrats questioned the validity of the independent candidate's nominating petitions.

Nader then filed a lawsuit last month alleging that the state's requirements for third-party candidates were unconstitutional because they violated the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Frederick Martone allowed the lawsuit to remain alive so Nader attorneys could explore the legality of Arizona's residency requirement for petition circulators — which Democrats alleged Nader supporters violated.

State election laws require petition circulators to be registered voters and Arizona residents.

Democrats alleged that more than 70% of the 21,500 petition signatures filed on behalf of Nader were invalid. Nader needed 14,694 valid signatures to get on the Arizona ballot.

Robert Barnes, an attorney for the independent candidate, said Nader supporters didn't present signatures gathered by out-of-state petition circulators because they feared being prosecuted.

Martone said Nader should have raised the constitutionality of out-of-state circulators and the deadline for collecting signatures in state court.

Colorado
BOULDER — Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, buoyed by court decisions keeping him on the ballot in Florida and Colorado, urged Democrat John Kerry to stop trying to keep him off the ballot.

"John Kerry's allowed his underlings to harass and intimidate to try to obstruct the Nader-Camejo ticket getting on the ballot in order to deny millions of people the opportunity to vote for candidates of their choice," Nader said at a news conference.

A Colorado judge on Sept. 17 refused a request from Democrats to take Nader off the ballot.

Nader said Democrats should blame themselves if they are unable to beat President Bush because they are not focusing on the real issues that people care about. He cited as examples universal health care, creating a living family wage and ending the war in Iraq.

"If the Democrats cannot landslide the worst Republican administration in the 20th century they better look at themselves," said Nader.

Nader said he expected to be on about 40 state ballots by the election.

Florida
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 on Sept. 17 that Ralph Nader's name could appear on the state's November ballot as the Reform Party presidential candidate.

The court's ruling met a Sept. 18 deadline for mailing 25,000 ballots to overseas voters, most of them military personnel.

As the Green Party candidate in 2000, Nader attracted 97,000 Florida votes. Most Democrats and many Republicans agree that those votes cost Democrat Al Gore the presidency.

President Bush won the state by 537 votes after three weeks of recounts and legal fighting.

This year, Nader had been on and off Florida's ballot several times over the last two weeks as lawsuits filed by the Florida Democratic Party and several individual voters challenged his certification as the Reform Party candidate.

Maryland
ANNAPOLIS — Maryland's highest court ordered state elections officials on Sept. 20 to accept 542 previously rejected voter signatures gathered by Ralph Nader supporters. The ruling puts Nader onto the Nov. 2 presidential election ballot.

Nader's campaign called the decision a victory for voters. Nader will appear as a candidate under the new Populist Party and will actively campaign in Maryland, supporters said.

"Voter intent comes first, and that's how it should be," said Kevin Zeese, national spokesman for Nader for President 2004.

The campaign was required to compile at least 10,000 signatures to qualify Nader for the ballot, but fell short when the names were checked against counties' registration rolls. State law requires each petition to include a county name and only signatures of voters registered in that county be accepted.

At least 542 registered voters' signatures had been disqualified when officials found they had signed under the wrong county.

An Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge agreed with those rejections, saying elections officials followed the law. On Sept. 20, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision and declared that section of state election law "invalid as applied in this case."

The ruling raises the question of how future petitioners will be required to gather signatures — a question that can't be answered until the state high court issues its full written opinion. In its one-page ruling, the court promised a full opinion but didn't say when it would be issued.

The Nader campaign decided to set up a new Populist Party to get on the Maryland ballot because that required just 10,000 signatures of registered voters instead of the 30,000 needed to qualify as an independent candidate for president.

His supporters turned in petitions with more than 15,000 signatures on the Aug. 2 deadline, but county elections officials disqualified about 5,500 of them. Many were rejected for reasons other than being placed under the wrong county.

Minnesota
ST. PAUL — Ralph Nader's supporters easily gathered enough signatures to qualify him for the ballot in Minnesota, where President Bush and challenger John Kerry are in a tight race.

Nader's independent campaign needed just 2,000 signatures from eligible voters, and supporters turned in 4,781 on Sept. 13.

The Associated Press reported that Nader qualified for the ballot on Sept. 14.

As a Green Party candidate in 2000, Nader got 5% of the vote in Minnesota, one of his best showings nationwide.

The last independent polls done in Minnesota, in July, showed Kerry and Bush too close to call whether Nader's in the race or not.

Nevada
LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that Ralph Nader will remain on the November ballot.

In its Sept. 15 ruling, the state's high court affirmed a previous decision by Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox.

"That's the right decision," Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said. "The Democratic harassment didn't succeed, and now Nevada voters have a choice."

The Nevada Democratic Party filed a lawsuit last month contending that Nader, who is running as an independent candidate, should be yanked from the ballot because the signature-gathering process used to qualify him was tainted.

The lawsuit claimed that petition circulators improperly listed hotel and commercial addresses on affidavits instead of home addresses, that many signatures were obtained through misrepresentations or forgeries and that many signatures came from people who weren't registered to vote.

After a three-day hearing that ended Sept. 1, Maddox threw out 3,348 suspect signatures. However, the Nader campaign still had far more than the 5,015 he needed to qualify for the ballot.

The Nevada Supreme Court said there was little evidence to show the process was tainted and ruled that state election laws tilt toward upholding the people's will. The court also found that language regulating the address issue was ambiguous.

New Mexico
SANTA FE — The state Supreme Court has ordered election officials to stop sending ballots to voters, pending the outcome of an appeal on whether Ralph Nader can run as an independent presidential candidate.

Some absentee ballots — without Nader on them — had already been mailed to voters who live overseas and to military personnel.

District Judge Theresa Baca ruled Sept. 20 that Nader didn't qualify under state law as an independent candidate in New Mexico because he's running in other states as the nominee for minor parties, including the Reform Party.

The state Supreme Court, in a one-page order issued yesterday, blocked the printing and distribution of ballots until it resolves the appeal. The court also ordered that about 25,000 ballots containing Nader's name, printed before the district judge's ruling, be preserved rather than destroyed.

Nader's campaign welcomed the Supreme Court's action, which had been requested on Sept. 22 when Nader filed his appeal. The high court issued its order a few hours after Nader supporters filed a lawsuit in federal court.

The Supreme Court is to hear arguments in Nader's appeal on Sept. 28 — a week before absentee voting begins across New Mexico.

When the Supreme Court did not immediately stop the printing and mailing of ballots after the appeal was filed, Nader supporters shifted the legal fight to a federal court. That court, the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, scheduled a hearing for today in the case. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three voters, including Marvin Gladstone, a former Green Party candidate for the Court of Appeals.

Oregon
SALEM — The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Sept. 22 that Ralph Nader would not appear on the Oregon presidential ballot, reversing a lower court.

The Supreme Court upheld Democratic Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who determined that flawed petition sheets left the independent presidential candidate 218 signatures short of the 15,306 needed to put him on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Marion County Judge Paul Lipscomb faulted Bradbury for using unwritten rules to decide the validity of the petitions. The high court, however, said Bradbury acted within his authority.

Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's highest court on Sept. 20 overturned a lower court ruling barring Ralph Nader from running for president in the state as an independent candidate, ordering the other court to immediately commence a review of Nader's nominating petition.

In a one-page ruling, the state Supreme Court overruled the Commonwealth Court, which said Nader could not run as in independent because he had accepted the nomination of the national Reform Party as its candidate in some other states.

Lawyers for a group of voters sympathetic to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry challenged Nader's candidacy last month.

They also claimed that more than 30,000 of the 47,000 signatures on Nader's nominating petitions were forged or otherwise invalid — leaving him short of the 25,697 signatures he needs to be listed on the Pennsylvania ballot.

South Carolina
CHARLESTON — Ralph Nader will be on the presidential ballot in South Carolina in November.

On Sept. 14, the Associated Press reported that Nader had been approved by the South Carolina Election Commission to represent the Independence Party, the offshoot of the Reform Party made popular by Ross Perot in the 1990s.

Nader earlier tried to get on the ballot as an independent. But many of the required 10,000 petition signatures of South Carolina voters were illegible or deemed not to come from legally registered voters.

Washington
OLYMPIA — Ralph Nader remains on the November presidential ballot in Washington state despite an effort to block him.

A Superior Court judge ruled on Sept. 15 that the secretary of state's office correctly followed state law when officials put Nader on the ballot.

The state Democratic Party and an Olympia court attorney had sued in Thurston County Superior Court to block Nader from the general election ballot.