(December 8, 2000) -- A good dose of Canadian election law would cure what is wrong with the way votes are counted in the United States, former presidential hopeful Ralph Nader said Thursday during a visit to Rochester.
Nader (pictured) called for a nationwide, uniform method for voting -- much like what Canada has -- for a presidential election and said the federal government should pay to conduct the election.
"There will be no confusion, no discriminatory placement of certain bond issues or candidates on ballots," Nader said before his speech to an audience of thousands at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Nader, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency as the Green Party candidate, also called for the courts to investigate the Florida presidential election even after Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al Gore is declared the winner.
Nader said the Florida Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Justice Department must investigate allegations that registration lists were purged in a way that discriminated against minority voters and that minorities were excluded from voting in certain Florida precincts in greater numbers than other voters.
"It's increasingly clear that the situation in Florida reflects a voting rights discrimination," Nader said before his speech. "The situation cannot be corrected before the next president is chosen. But it certainly needs to be challenged in courts of law."
Nader admitted that he was disappointed that he gained only 3 percent of the total vote last month. Gaining 5 percent would have meant millions in matching federal funds for the next Green Party presidential candidate.
He partly blamed the media for ignoring his candidacy and said they ignore most third-party candidates.
Monroe County Green Party activist Jon Greenbaum, who ran for the state Assembly this year, agreed with Nader's assessment and said a change can occur only if the media shift their focus from covering who will win to what the issues are.
Nader said the major networks passively allowed the two major party candidates to dictate the terms of the three presidential debates, excluding Nader and Reform Party candidate Patrick Buchanan.
So next year, Nader will start a campaign to "dislodge and discredit" the Commission on Presidential Debates, which he said is largely controlled by the two major parties. He will try to pressure the networks to sponsor multiparty debates in 2004.
Nader dismissed the notion he caused the presidential deadlock in Florida and that he undercut Gore's campaign.
"When you are trying to advance a long-term political reform movement," he said. "you are under no obligation to help someone else's campaign."
The theme of his public speech was how corporate influence is eroding democratic participation. The expectation level by average citizens has dropped so low that "our politicians can run to the bank and then get elected and re-elected," he said.
He also urged people to get involved, or 100 years from now people will say "there was a generation that had to give up so little to gain so much."
Nader supporters in the capacity crowd at Ingle Auditorium also tired of the view that Nader cost Gore an election.
"If it wasn't for Al Gore, then Ralph Nader would be president," said Dan Rekas of Alden, Erie County, a fourth-year student at RIT.
Nader also will speak at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, Ontario County, at 7 Friday at the Smith Opera House. The title of the speech is "The Changing Face of Democracy in the 21st Century.
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