DEMOCRAT OFFICIAL SAYS NADER PETITION FALLS SHORT

CARSON CITY -- The petition to put Ralph Nader on the presidential
ballot in Nevada contains only 314 legitimate signatures, far short of
the 5,000 required, a Democratic official testified Monday.

Ian Glinka, a state Democratic Party official, told District Judge
Bill Maddox there were many unregistered voters who signed the
petitions, forgeries and defective petitions among 11,888 signatures
the Nader supporters gathered.

Maddox decided to postpone the conclusion of the hearing until today
to allow more testimony. Keith Loomis, attorney for the Nader
petition, will cross-examine Glinka and then to present his own case.

Maddox said he must make a full record in the appeal because any
decision he makes will go to the Nevada Supreme Court. Maddox also
said he would have to give some weight to the process of the Clark
County Voter Registrar's Office that said a random sampling showed
there were 8,681 valid signatures of voters.

Maddox spent Monday morning hearing a lawsuit by the Nevada Taxpayers
Association to invalidate the referendum that seeks to repeal the
$833.5 million tax increase. And then in the afternoon, he listened to
arguments on the Nader issue.

The judge withheld a ruling on whether the "Axe The Tax" referendum
will appear on the ballot. And he indicated he may take under
submission arguments on the Nader controversy when the oral
presentation is completed today.

Democrats are trying to knock Nader off the ballot, fearing he may
take 2 to 4 percent of Nevada votes, enough to swing Nevada and its
five electoral votes in a close election to President Bush. The have
suggested the Nader drive is part of a GOP effort to divert votes away
from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Glinka said he and a team of Democrats hand-checked the signatures of
those who signed the Nader petition. And then he ran it through the
computer, cross-checking the results to make sure.

He suggests that 2,719 who signed the Nader petition were not
registered voters. He said the petitions bearing the signatures of
5,844 were invalid because the person who verified the signature
listed a hotel as his or her residence.

Glinka said 677 persons who signed the petition did so on the day they
registered to vote and another 559 registered to vote days after
signing the petition. These should be disqualified.

Maddox noted that U.S. District Judge James Mahan of Las Vegas has
ruled the signatures are valid if the person signs the petition the
same day he or she registers to vote. Mahan made his ruling on the
marijuana initiative petition and that case is on appeal to the U.S.
9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Maddox also appeared to reject another part of the Democrats'
argument.

Attorney Paul Larsen, representing the Democratic Party said there
were "lots of forgeries and signatures obtained under false pretenses."

Larsen presented Myrna McKinley and her granddaughter, Renee, who both
registered to vote while they were at the state Department of Motor
Vehicles in Henderson.

Both said they signed the voter registration forms but then were asked
to sign a second document that they believed to be part of the
registration. The top part of the second form was obscured and they
signed it.

Both said they did not know it was a petition for Nader.

Maddox said if they didn't read the petition, "that's their problem. I
suggest they read what they sign."

Joan West of Las Vegas, however, said she signed up to change her
registration from non-partisan to Democrat. But her name appeared on
the petition to qualify Nader. She said the "signature was either
forged or false." She said she never saw a Nader petition.