Ralph Nader to Kerry: “Why did you wait so long?”

Nader-Camejo Commends “Johnny-Come-Lately” John Kerry for Supporting the Third-Party Battle to Recount on His Behalf in Ohio
Ralph Nader to Kerry: “Why did you wait so long?”

Washington, DC: The Nader-Camejo campaign commends John Kerry for supporting the heated battle for a recount in Ohio. The Kerry-Edwards legal intervention in defense of the recount comes 21 days after the Nader-Camejo campaign issued a public challenge to the candidate to initiate an Ohio recount, and 25 days after an AP story revealed astonishing irregularities in the Ohio election, including an error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.

Nader-Camejo stood ready to initiate a recount in Ohio, as they did in New Hampshire, but could not, since only candidates appearing on the Ohio ballot have legal standing to do so. The Democrats’ anti-democratic actions to bar Ralph Nader and running mate Peter Miguel Camejo from ballots throughout the country prevailed in Ohio with many disgraceful tactics - ultimately robbing many Ohio citizens of the right to vote for the candidate of their choice and nearly depriving them of the right to have their votes counted and verified.

Nader-Camejo challenged the candidates on the ballot with the most at stake - Kerry and Edwards - to follow through on their recurring promises during the campaign to the American people to make sure every vote counts. The Democrats ended their campaign with $51 million in their campaign coffers - more than sufficient funds to finance recount efforts in every questionable state. When the Democrats declined to stand by their campaign promise, leading the recount fell to Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik, whom Ralph Nader asked to intervene, and Green Party candidate David Cobb.

Ralph Nader reissued his challenge to Kerry-Edwards to join the recount and back it with Democratic Party resources.

“With the extensive alleged pre-election effort to prevent election fraud and the volume of irregularities reported in such an important swing state, the Democratic Party’s long silence was puzzling,” said Ralph Nader. “Now they must take every possible action to give our nation the fair accounting it deserves from the 2004 election and to assure more accurate vote counting in future elections.”