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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nader is once again on ballot in Florida

John Kennedy Knight Ridder

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ralph Nader is back on Floida’s presidential ballot — for now.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood stepped in Monday and ordered Florida’s 67 election supervisors to add the Reform Party candidate’s name — just days after a Tallahassee judge sided with the state Democratic Party and stripped him from the ballot.

“We are acting as an honest broker,” Hood said. “Supervisors are under the gun in sending out these ballots.”

But the move by Hood, the former Orlando mayor named state elections chief by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother, quickly exploded into a partisan fight over Nader’s candidacy.

“This is amazing,” said Scott Maddox, state Democratic Party chairman. “What Glenda Hood and Jeb Bush have done is turn the state’s Division of Elections into the political and legal arm of the state Republican Party,” which is seen as wanting Nader on the ballot to pull votes from Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

Hood’s order — sent in a memo to supervisors — came moments after she filed a legal appeal Monday of the temporary injunction against Nader issued last week by Leon County Circuit Judge Kevin Davey.

Davey set a hearing for Wednesday to allow Nader’s side to make its case for joining five other minor-party candidates already on the ballot. But Hood’s office said it was wrong to remove Nader while legal action still is pending.

A Saturday deadline is looming for Florida elections officials to mail about 50,000 ballots to military personnel and other voters overseas. At the moment, Nader would be on that ballot.

Hood’s action also is unlikely to be the final word. In separate action, an appeals court Monday sent the matter of Nader’s candidacy to the Florida Supreme Court for review, but justices have not yet set a hearing date.