Nader files signatures to get on ballot in N.M.

Posted 4/02/2008 02:12:00 PM

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader said last week that New Mexico would be the first state where he qualified for the ballot. On Tuesday, his campaign filed 6,700 signatures with the Secretary of State’s Office in an attempt to make that claim a reality.

Nader told the Associated Press that New Mexico is the first of at least 40 states where his campaign will file to appear on the November ballot.

“We’re drawing a bright line between us and the three corporate candidates,” the news service quoted him as saying.

Nader is running in New Mexico under his newly formed Independent Party, rather than as a candidate independent of any party, because it’s easier to qualify for the ballot as a minor-party candidate than as a candidate not affiliated with any party.

Robert Baroody, state chair of the Independent Party, told the Associated Press that the GOP’s policies are “violent and destructive,” and Democrats offer “a lot of generalities and platitudes.”