With about 70% of the national vote counted, independent candidate Ralph Nader has now surpassed his vote total from 2004. In that year, the Nader/Camejo ticket won 463,000 votes.
As of midnight Eastern time, media reports are showing Nader with about 475,000 votes… likely on his way to a total of 650,000 or better. Of course, this is far below Nader’s high water mark as the Green nominee in 2000 when he captured just under 3 million votes.
But if California continues to pull in strong numbers for him tonight, there is still a very good chance that he will beat his 1996 result of 685,000…. making this Nader’s second most successful bid for the White House. We’ll know in a few hours if he gets there.
God, I know I am too hopeful but I still hope Nader gets closer to 1,000,000. It would be depressing if Nader does not surpass 1996 when he was only on the ballot on 22 states.
The “spoiler” label is a hard thing to shake.