Citing 'forgeries,' court throws Nader off Pennsylvania ballot



HARRISBURG (AP) -- A state judge knocked Ralph Nader off Pennsylvania's presidential ballot Wednesday, citing legal problems with his nomination papers that left him thousands of signatures short of the number he needed.
Calling the petitions "rife with forgeries," President Judge James Gardner Colins of Commonwealth Court said that fewer than 19,000 of the more than 51,000 signatures that Nader's supporters submitted were valid. Nader needed at least 25,697 to be listed on the ballot as an independent candidate.
"I am compelled to emphasize that this signature-gathering process was the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetrated upon this court," Judge Colins said in a 15-page ruling that climaxed a two-week review in multiple courtrooms across the state.
"In reviewing signatures, it became apparent that, in addition to signing names such as 'Mickey Mouse,' 'Fred Flintstone,' 'John Kerry,' and the ubiquitous 'Ralph Nader,' there were thousands of names that were created at random and then randomly assigned either existent or nonexistent addresses by the circulators," the judge wrote.
The signature review was prompted by a court challenge filed by a group of voters sympathetic to Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry.

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