Members of the Republican Party of Wisconsin tried to get presidential candidate Ralph Nader included on the state's Nov. 2 ballot by secretly collecting 3,228 signatures and lying about their party affiliations.
State law requires each circulator to sign a statement swearing, \I intend to support these candidates."" At least 16 Republican Party members served as circulators for Nader.
Nader's Wisconsin coordinator Bill Linville said he knew of the Republicans' involvement in the drive and did not accept any of the signatures.
UW-Madison student and College Republicans member Matt Holsen organized the drive, and Linville said Holsen approached him with the signatures Sept. 5.
""It was obvious something was fishy because he didn't talk much and he tried to pass himself off as a Green, and he had 3,000 signatures,"" Linville added.
Holsen was not available for comment.
Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin Chris Lato said he did not know anything about the signature drive.
""I mean, Ralph Nader is on the ballot, and folks will be able to choose from him and the major party candidates on Nov. 2,"" he told the Wisconsin State Journal.
Yet, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Seth Bofelli said it is evident that the signature drive was a ""wink and nod"" effort on the part of the Republicans.
""There was nothing illegal that they did, but certainly it seems that it was unethical,"" he said.
Village of Brown Deer President Margaret Jaberg, a conservative who collected signatures for Holsen, disagreed with Democrats' criticisms of the drive.
She said she collected signatures because she thinks the ballot should include as many candidates as possible.
Circulator and UW-Eau Claire student Taylor James said Holsen told him to be quiet about his political views while collecting. When asked if this made him suspicious about the drive, James replied, ""Yeah.""
Bofelli said he thinks it is evident the Republicans were trying to pull votes away from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. ""The fact that they have to divert resources, divert attention to try to get Nader on the ballot as opposed to just helping out Bush, I mean I think it really signals some sort of desperation for their campaign,"" he said.
