HARRISBURG -- A group of voters from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia filed a lawsuit here yesterday challenging the petition signatures of third-party candidate Ralph Nader in an effort to kick him off the Nov. 2 presidential ballot in Pennsylvania.

	Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press Attorney Efrem M. Grail, second from left, and law student Jason Lichtman, left, talk with Commonwealth Court employee Ronald Darlington yesterday in Harrisburg as Grail and Lichtman filed a challenge of petitions gathered to put independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot. Click photo for larger image.

Among their claims against the Nader petitions is that some signatures are forgeries and at least two people who supposedly signed the petitions are deceased.

Gregory M. Harvey, a Philadelphia attorney who specializes in election law and helped oversee a Democrat-ordered review of the petitions, said there were an "enormous number" of false signatures -- including one sheet of 100 names on which 92 could not be verified.

The Western Pennsylvania plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Efrem Grail of the Reed Smith law firm in Downtown Pittsburgh. Grail traveled to Harrisburg yesterday to file a two-foot-high stack of petition challenges and photocopies of evidence in Commonwealth Court.

A hearing date has not been set.

Some Democrats fear Nader will take votes away from their candidate, John Kerry. In the 2000 election, some Democrats claimed Nader siphoned off thousands of votes from candidate Al Gore, essentially helping to elect Republican George Bush.

The Pittsburgh area plaintiffs are Linda S. Serody, of Squirrel Hill; Roderick J. Sweets, of North Huntington; Ronald Bergman, of Greensburg; Richard Trinclisti and Terry Trinclisti, both of Apollo; Bernie Cohen-Scott, of Pittsburgh; and Donald G. Brown, of Highland Park.

The Philadelphia plaintiff is Julia A. O'Connell, who is represented by Harvey. Harvey, who is working with Grail, said Nader's petitions were the worst he'd seen in 15 years.

Among the complaints about Nader's petitions, according to the suit, are "forged signatures, missing addresses, unreadable names or addresses, incomplete information, missing dates of signatures and signers not being a registered voter."

The suit also claims the Nader petitions show "a wide-ranging and extensive pattern of false and forged entries, entries obtained through [the] deception of signers and whole pages of outright forged signatures."

Kevin Zeese, a Nader campaign spokesman in Washington, D.C., said, "We looked at the signatures before submitting them, and we removed what we thought were forgeries. We have submitted valid signatures. We'll let the court decide."

Zeese said the Nader campaign submitted about 45,000 signatures and is confident of the validity of at least 25,697 -- the number needed to put Nader on the ballot.

However, Democrats from the state House of Representatives said they think there are at most only 10,000 valid signatures on the petitions. The review of the petitions were ordered by Democratic leaders of the House

Rep. H. William DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, said yesterday the Democrats have only one goal in mind -- to help Democrat Kerry defeat President Bush.

"We are being completely open about our intentions,'' said DeWeese. "Our goal is to help elect John Kerry the next president of the United States.''

Most political observers have opined that Nader's presence on the ballot can only hurt Kerry -- and help Republican Bush -- by siphoning off liberal, progressive or Democratic voters who would vote for Kerry if Nader isn't on the ballot.

Grail said he is working for no fee in helping the plaintiffs challenge Nader's petitions. Other volunteers have combed Nader's petitions over the past few days, Grail said, including some provided by state Democratic officials.

He said no one is being paid for the laborious work of scrutinizing the Nader petitions, but state Democratic officials did advance about $3,600 for copying fees.