FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jim Buell, 217-337-5386, greens@prairienet.org

NADER CAMPAIGN FIFTY PERCENT OVER REQUIRED SIGNATURES

The Prairie Greens of East Central Illinois gathered nearly 500 new signatures last weekend in support of continuing efforts to place Ralph Nader on the Illinois presidential ballot. Statewide over the weekend,  supporters of the veteran consumer advocate added more than 6,000 new signatures to the 32,000 they had already collected.

The new total surpasses by over fifty percent the 25,000 voter signatures that Illinois law requires for placing third-party and independent presidential candidates on the Nov. 7 ballot. Illinois is widely regarded to have the second-most restrictive ballot access in the country, after North Carolina.

Lawyers for the Nader campaign plan to use the additional signatures to buttress a lawsuit filed against the Illinois Board of Elections on behalf of Nader and his Green Party running mate, American Indian activist Winona LaDuke, in Federal District Court in Chicago. The lawsuit is necessary because Nader supporters had collected only about 23,000 signatures by June 26, which the Illinois legislature set as the filing deadline last summer. Prior to that change, the deadline had been six weeks later. Supporters of the Green Party presidential ticket vowed to continue collecting signatures until the prior deadline, Aug. 7.

Deadlines in advance of the major parties' national conventions have been ruled unconstitutional in the past. In a case which Nader's attorneys are citing as precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for 1980 independent presidential candidate and former Illinois Congressman John B. Anderson, in a ballot access suit stemming from an early deadline in Ohio.

The Nader/LaDuke ticket is already on the ballot in 34 states, and is expected to be on in at least 45 states by Election Day. Nader also has sued for ballot access in North Carolina, South Dakota and Oklahoma.

"We have the most burdensome ballot access statutes of any Western country," Nader said today on the CNN legal affairs show, "Burden of Proof." [NOTE: transcript available at http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/09/bp.00.html] Yet the Anderson decision holds that "under the 14th Amendment, states cannot unduly burden the access to ballot by third party candidates," he said. "Now 33 states have deadlines in August and September for signatures to be filed, and the thrust of our case ... is that the signature date is too compressed, there are not enough days to go around with clipboards getting signatures to get people on the ballot." Illinois, unlike most states, requires that all signatures be gathered within a 90-day period immediately preceding the deadline.

"Our ability to gather the signatures of nearly 40,000 voters statewide demonstrates that Nader is a popular candidate in Illinois as well as around the country, offering sound and progressive alternatives to the pro-corporate policies of both the Democrats and Republicans," said Jim Buell, a Prairie Greens member. "Clearly, it is the unconstitutionally tight deadline, not any lack of support, that is keeping Nader off the ballot in Illinois." Buell noted that volunteers collected every signature for Nader, in contrast to the practice of other third-party candidates who employed paid petition gatherers. In all, East central Illinois residents contributed more than 1,100 of the signatures for Nader's ballot petition, according to Buell.

THE PRAIRIE GREENS OF EAST CENTRAL ILLINOIS is a political, social and cultural organization supporting the aims of the Illinois and national Green Party organizations. Greens cherish local control and diversity yet unite around ten Key Values: Grassroots democracy, Social justice and equal opportunity, Ecological wisdom, Non-violence, Decentralization, Community-based economics and economic justice, Cooperative values, Respect for diversity, Personal and global responsibility, and Future focus and sustainability.

The local group holds monthly member meetings and is in the process of creating an affiliated campus organization at the University of Illinois. More information is available from the group's website: http://www.prairienet.org/greens/. The official Nader/LaDuke website is http://www.votenader.com.