Obama, McCain aren't only picks for president
by Mark Niquette
The Columbus Dispatch
Thursday, 21 August 2008

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain won't be the only presidential candidates appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot in Ohio.

Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin has been certified for the state ballot, and a judge has ordered that Libertarian Bob Barr and Brian Moore of the Socialist Party also be included.

Two other candidates filed to run by today's deadline for independent presidential candidates, including consumer crusader and past presidential hopeful Ralph Nader.

The candidates need 5,000 valid signatures of registered voters, and Nader filed 14,285, said Justin Jeffre, Nader's Ohio ballot-access coordinator.

Richard A. Duncan of Aurora, Ohio, also filed petition forms with signatures that now will be checked. But a petition from the Green Party's Cynthia McKinney was rejected on its face for a lack of signatures.

Moore's petition forms also were rejected, but U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. ruled yesterday as part of a lawsuit that the Socialist Party has shown enough support to qualify for the Ohio ballot.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will not challenge that ruling, a spokesman said.

Nader was disqualified from the Ohio ballot in 2004 because of problems with his petition but won 2.5 percent of the state vote in 2000. Many Democrats still blame him for taking votes away from Vice President Al Gore in Florida and other states that year, swinging the race to George W. Bush.

But Jeffre said Nader, who hopes to be on 45 state ballots this fall and run as a write-in elsewhere, is addressing issues the two major parties aren't, such as corporate control of the government.

"This is about shifting the power back to the people," Jeffre said.

Nader is expected to campaign in Columbus and elsewhere in the state on Sept. 8, Jeffre said.

This article can be found online at www.columbusdispatch.com. Journalist Mark Niquette can be reached at mniquette@dispatch.com.