Nader Off Oregon Ballot

The Oregon Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling and declared Nader off the ballot in Oregon.

The high court unanimously upheld a ruling by Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who determined that flawed petitions sheets left Nader 218 signatures short of the 15,306 needed to put him on the Nov. 2 ballot.

In 2000, Gore beat Bush in Oregon by fewer than 7,000 votes; Nader received more than 77,000 votes, amounting to 5% of the vote. The 2 most recent polls have shown wildly divergent results between Kerry and Bush and the one that included Nader has him at only 1%. Conventional wisdom is that Oregon's 7 electoral votes will go to Kerry in November regardless of the Nader factor but he can use all the help he can get.