Nader: Flip Coin to Decide Presidency

H A R T F O R D, Conn., Nov. 25, 2000 -- Green Party leader Ralph Nader has asimple solution to the nation’s presidential stalemate: Flip acoin.

Reviving a proposal he made about 10 days ago in Denver, Nadersaid today a coin toss is the easiest way to appease themillions of Americans who will end up feeling that either Al Goreor George W. Bush stole the election.

“No one will ever really know who won because the margin oferror is larger than the margin of votes” separating Gore andBush, said Nader, the Green Party’s unsuccessful presidentialcandidate. “The only way we’re going to avoid having one sidesaying the election was stolen is to flip a coin.”

Not that a winner would please Nader. His own campaignrepeatedly and bitterly attempted to portray the Republican andDemocratic candidates as hopelessly wedded to corporate interests.

“Take your choice,” he told about 75 cheering Green Partysupporters at a fundraiser in a Hartford tavern. “Doyou want a do-nothing provocateur or a do-nothing anesthetizer?”

New Mexico Does It

Nader said state law in New Mexico, where Gore won by fewer than500 votes, provides for a coin toss to resolve elections that endin a dead heat. “So when I mention this, I’m not being flip,” hesaid to laughter.

A presidential coin toss could be internationally televised, andmoney raised from the sale of advertising could erase both sides’campaign debts, Nader said. He said he hasn’t suggested it to Goreor Bush, though, because “it’s clear they’re going to fight thisout in the courts.”

Despite the Greens’ failure to win the minimum 5 percent of thevote and qualify for federal campaign funds, Nader said his partybuilt momentum among disaffected voters and is well-positioned tobecome a vigorous and viable third-party alternative.

“We’re going to be a watchdog party, not a lapdog party,” saidMike DeRosa, a Green Party leader in Connecticut.

Nader, who grew up in Winsted, said he was encouraged thatseveral hundred Green Party candidates ran for office nationwide,and that the party has established chapters on the campuses ofnearly 1,000 colleges and universities.

“For the future, this political reform movement is going tofield more candidates,” he said. “It’s also going to be the partyof the young generation. This is the party that you can helpbuild.”

Nader was roundly criticized by some Democrats for refusing tosteer his supporters to Gore, a move that would have avoided theFlorida stalemate. He stood by that decision Saturday, sayinganything else would have been a “betrayal” of his party faithful.

“There are a lot of what-ifs,” he said. “What if Al Gore hadwon his home state of Tennessee? What if [Reform Party candidatePat] Buchanan didn’t run and didn’t take votes from Bush?”

Nader’s message resonated with Jack Lander of Danbury, a newGreen Party member who said this was the first presidentialelection he voted in since the Eisenhower years.

“I characterize both Gore and Bush as superficial clowns,” hesaid. “I, for one, voted my conscience.”