Fla. Supreme Court puts Nader on ballot

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's highest court yesterday ruled that independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader must be allowed to compete in the 2004 election in the state, delivering a possible boost to President Bush's reelection chances.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled on a challenge by the Democratic Party against Nader being granted inclusion on ballots on the grounds that his Reform Party is not a genuine national political organization.

The court said Florida law is not clear enough to merit denying Nader access to the ballot.

''In making our decision in this case, we are guided by the overriding constitutional principle in favor of ballot access," the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

The court said the Florida Legislature had not clearly defined what constitutes a ''national party" or a ''national convention" and ''we have been unable to ascertain whether the Legislature intended for these terms to have a strict or broad interpretation."

''In the absence of more specific statutory criteria or guidance from the Legislature, we are unable to conclude that a statutory violation occurred," the court said.

The decision could be regarded as good news for Bush.

Nader was a Green Party candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida by 537 votes to clinch the White House, but was spurned by the Green Party this year.

He won the endorsement of the Reform Party, which is on the ballot in several states. Analysts said most of the nearly 98,000 votes that Nader received in Florida in 2000 would have gone to Al Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.