Thank you for running Ashley Sanders' opinion piece, "Rock the vote by rocking the boat: A case for Ralph Nader" (Oct. 2) about Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. If I lose much more confidence in Barack Obama, I may vote for Nader and his Green Party running mate, Matt Gonzalez, provided state Democratic leadership fails to throw this team off the ballot, as happened in 2004. Nader submitted signatures of more than 50,000 registered voters on Aug. 1, twice Pennsylvania's required number of 24,665, in hopes of overcoming any Democratic dirty tricks this time. In comparison, New Jersey only requires 800 signatures.

The Green Party failed to get enough signatures locally and statewide to appear on the ballot. Donald Wilson from Philipsburg hoped to run for the 5th Congressional District seat, but had to abandon his effort because of the signature barrier to third party candidates. I barely got the thousands of signatures needed when I ran in 1980 for the then 23rd Congressional District office on the Consumer/Citizen Party ticket. If Nader doesn't get on the ballot, I might write-in the Green Party's groundbreaking alternative: The first all-women-of-color ticket in U.S. history! Cynthia McKinney, Georgia's first black congresswoman, and longtime community organizer and journalist Rosa Clemente, who she named as her running mate in July.

Douglas M. Mason

Class of 1982