Court knocks Nader off ballot in Pa.

"The conduct of the candidates, through their representatives [not their attorneys], shocks the conscience of the court," he said. "In reviewing signatures, it became apparent that, in addition to signing names such as 'Mickey Mouse,' 'Fred Flintstone,' 'John Kerry,' and the ubiquitous 'Ralph Nader,' there were thousands of names that were created at random and then randomly assigned either existent or nonexistent addresses by the circulators."

The signature review was prompted by a court challenge filed by a group of voters sympathetic to Senator John F. Kerry, the Democratic candidate.

Democrats have had mixed success in their effort to keep Nader off the ballot in battleground states where they fear he could siphon votes from Kerry. Besides Pennsylvania, he failed to make the ballot in Ohio, Oregon, and Missouri but has won a spot on ballots in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Overall, Nader will be on the ballot in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Nader's unsettled status had caused headaches for elections officials in Pennsylvania's 67 counties as the court proceedings bumped up against the timetable for mailing out larger-than-usual batches of absentee ballots.

Some counties heeded the state's recommendation that they not send out civilian absentee ballots until after the court case was settled, but many counties decided to mail out ballots that included Nader so that voters have time to cast them by the Oct. 29 deadline. Absentee votes cast for Nader are likely to be thrown out, officials have said.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore carried Pennsylvania, beating George W. Bush by fewer than 205,000 votes out of 4.9 million cast.