A group of President Bush’s backers is working to get independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s name on the Iowa ballot this November, hoping Nader will take votes away from democrat John Kerry. Iowa’s Commissioner of Elections is Secretary of State Chet Culver says the group needs to get just 15-hundred petition signatures rounded up by August 13th. Culver says his office is willing to work with anyone as long as they play by the rules, and the rules specify at least 15-hundred petition signatures must be submitted to his office by August 13th. Nader tried but failed to win the Green Party’s presidential nomination again, and if he had, Nader’s name would have appeared on the Iowa ballot automatically because Nader, who was the Green’s presidential nominee four years ago, garnered 29,000 Iowa votes in November, 2000. As Iowans exited President Bush’s rally in Cedar Rapids earlier this week, volunteers holding clip boards asked folks if they wanted to “help the President” by signing a petition to put Nader’s name on the ballot because Nader would “take votes away from Kerry.” Neither the Republican Party of Iowa nor the Bush campaign say they had a role in the petition drive.
