COLUMBUS - Ralph Nader, whom many Democrats blame for taking votes away from Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, will be removed from the Nov. 2 ballot in Ohio, the state's chief elections officer ordered yesterday afternoon.

After a four-day hearing, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell concluded that several parts of the petition effort to get Mr. Nader on the ballot failed to comply with Ohio law, including how several paid and nonpaid petition circulators collected signatures.

Mr. Blackwell, a Republican, accepted the recommendations of Gretchen Quinn, an assistant elections counsel who said 2,756 of the Nader petition signatures should be ruled invalid because the person who signed the petition did not circulate it, the circulator was not an Ohio resident or elector, or several other irregularities occurred.

When Mr. Blackwell agreed, that meant Mr. Nader had 3,708 valid signatures of registered voters. The requirement is for 5,000 signatures of registered voters to be on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate.

Mr. Blackwell's decision was triggered by a protest filed by attorneys hired by or allied with the Ohio Democratic Party to challenge petitions that Mr. Nader's campaign filed. It was part of a nationwide effort to prevent Mr. Nader from siphoning votes from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Mr. Nader has met requirements to be on ballots in 36 states, but he is involved in legal battles in several where he is already on the ballot or trying to get access.

Although Mr. Nader was not a factor in the outcome in Ohio four years ago, yesterday's decision was a clear victory for Senator Kerry's campaign.

In 2000, George Bush carried Ohio with 50 percent of the vote. Mr. Gore trailed with 46.5 percent, and Mr. Nader received 2.5 percent.

"The ruling indicates that candidates cannot attempt to deceive state election officials in order to get on the ballot," said Denny White, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Julie Coyle, a Toledo resident who is state coordinator for Mr. Nader's campaign, could not be reached for comment.

A recent fund-raising letter that carries Mr. Nader's signature says: "Instead of joining with us in a two-pronged campaign to attack Bush, John Kerry, [Democratic National Committee Chairman] Terry McAuliffe, and the Democrats instead decided to launch a dirty tricks campaign to try to knock us off the ballot in Texas, Oregon, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia - all over the country."

Jake Hasselbach, who stepped down in late August as the University of Toledo campus coordinator for Mr. Nader's campaign, said last night that Mr. Blackwell made the wrong decision. Mr. Hasselbach said he left Mr. Nader's campaign to support Mr. Kerry.

"I still have respect for the democratic ideals that Blackwell obviously does not. We turned in 15,000 signatures and the way they set this up, it is rigged by the two major parties. They work in tandem to get third-party candidates off the ballot," Mr. Hasselbach said.

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, rejected the Nader campaign's argument that the Republican secretary of state had worked with the Democratic Party to narrow the voters' choices.

"The decision was based on the recommendations of the hearing examiner to the secretary of state and made in accordance with Ohio law," he said.

Ms. Quinn presided at the four-day hearing in which Democratic attorneys alleged "massive fraud," including forged signatures and "numerous irregularities" in how the signatures were collected.

Ms. Quinn yesterday also recommended that the secretary of state's office investigate the conduct of several people who circulated petitions who were hired by JSM Inc., a Tampa-based company that Mr. Nader's campaign hired to gather signatures in Ohio and several other states.

"The evidence does not support any claim that the misconduct is attributable to the Nader campaign, which nonetheless bears the unfortunate consequences of the improper conduct of certain individuals identified during the course of the hearing," she wrote.

On Aug. 18, Mr. Nader's campaign submitted petitions with 14,473 signatures.

Three weeks later, Mr. Blackewell certified the Nov. 2 ballot, after the secretary of state's office received word that county boards of elections had counted 6,464 valid signatures.

Attorneys challenging Mr. Nader's petitions said he had fewer than 3,500 valid signatures because of fraud and other irregularities. Yesterday, Mr. Blackwell agreed with their assessment.

Mr. Nader's name will be covered or lined out on paper ballots, or voters will be informed that a vote for him is not an option, Mr. LoParo said.

Mr. LoParo said most county boards of election did not have absentee ballots available yesterday. He said absentee ballots will be mailed out with a notice that a vote for Mr. Nader no longer is an option.

Contact James Drew at:

jdrew@theblade.com

or 614-221-0496.

First Published September 29, 2004, 11:26 a.m.