EDITORIAL
Nader ballot petition must be resolved now

We have been among those who argued that Ralph Nader would do a service to the country by abandoning his long-shot independent campaign for president.

It's clear that Nader will serve as little more than a spoiler in the election, leaving the nation with a less-than-clear choice between Republican George Bush and Democrat John Kerry come Nov. 2.

Still, the decision to run is Nader's to make, not ours. Nader supporters want to see his name on the Hawai'i ballot this November. And it's up to elections officials to make every possible effort to determine whether Nader qualified by collecting the necessary 3,711 petition signatures on time.

There seems to be some confusion on that point.

Representatives from both the elections office and the Nader campaign are reviewing the petitions to see whether an adequate number of signatures were gathered.

That's a bit odd since some absentee ballots have already been mailed out without Nader's name on it.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been filed challenging the quality of work done by the elections office in its efforts to verify signatures. The lawsuit is something of a backup to the petition review effort.

It is imperative that this controversy be resolved quickly. It will do Nader — and voters — little good if he is ultimately disqualified after large numbers of Island residents have already voted.