Nader ballot access

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

What was the Reform Party in South Carolina is now calling itself the Independence Party and who, if anyone, they are pulling for to be President I don't know, but that is Nader's only chance forgetting on the ballot if his petition drive fails.
The other six certified parties (Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican, and United Citizens) have all selected other candidates to support.  (United Citizens is a local ultra-left party that provided Nader's ballot access in 2000 [the Greens only recently became certified when the state's Natural Law party instead of disbanding became the state's Green Party] but this year they are supporting the Socialist slate.)  It takes the same number of signatures (10,000) to run for statewide office as a petition candiate in South Carolina as it does to become a certified party, but the deadline for becoming a certified party in time for this year's general election was six months ago and also requires some other formalities besides signatures, so I doubt that there will be another certified party in South Carolina for the 2004 General Election.  Getting a third party started in South Carolina take a good bit of effort, but once you have a third party, its very easy to maintain certification, which helps to explain why the Natural Law party became the Green Party in South Carolina.  It was much easier for the Greens to gain party status than by starting from scratch.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I think Nader is on in Florida via the Reform party.

Possibly, but the Reform Party is in such shambles, I'm not certain. If the Reform Party had held together, Nader would have been on the SC ballot without needing to get 10,000 signatures.  I'll be extremely surprised if there are 10,000 valid signatures among the 11,000 he turned here on Thursday.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Nader has quasi-ballot access in North Carolina.  It takes 100,000 signatures for your name to be on the ballot as a petition Presidential candidate (which Nader never had a chance of getting)  but only 500 signatures to get them to count write-in votes for Nader which he did get.  Considering that some states such as South Carolina don't allow write-in votes for President, I wouldn't say that Nader has no ballot access there just very minimal access.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Is Nader being on the SC ballot due to the Independence Party (aka Reform Party) or due to the petition drive he held?  He submitted 11,000 signatures, but he needs 10,000 signatures and having 90% valid signatures doesn't seem likely to me (and won't be certified until August 16 anyway).  Another recent petition drive (to get the Southern Party recognized as a certified party) submitted around 11,000 signatures earlier this year and only about 9,000 of them turned out to be valid.  I can't see Nader's group doing better. given the haste with which they worked.  I'm not certain if the Independence Party considers itself to be still aligned with the Reform Party, and they have no presence on the web that I've been able to find, so I'm unsure of what if anything the Independence Party aims to do.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I do question it.  Every thing I've seen indicates that Nader will not succeed with his petition.  For example, http://wec.textamerica.com/?r=1160720.  The only way I can see Nader getting on the SC ballot is if the Independence Party (ex-Reform) has decided to nominate him.  All the other certified parties (Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican, and United Citizens) have announced their candidates and they aren't named Nader and Camejo.  It is possible that he's gotten the nod from the Independence Party in the past month, but if that was the case, I can't see why Nader wasted time and money on a last minute petition drive here in SC.