Recent statewide allegations of impropriety by Republican officials and supporters regarding the felonious collection of approximately 3,228 signatures to get Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the state ballot included UW-Eau Claire students, according to a former student.

At the Aug. 18 Bush rally in Chippewa Falls, former student James Taylor, sophomore Alex Edland and junior Kyle Vorachek helped circulate a petition to Bush supporters in an attempt to take votes away from Sen. John Kerry in exchange for tickets to the Bush rally, Taylor said.

“The object was to get Nader on the ballot,” the self-proclaimed Republican and Bush supporter said.

Edland, a member of the Eau Claire College Republicans, said a friend, UW-Madison student Aaron Schlegelmilch, had introduced the opportunity to do work for the Bush campaign at the rally in exchange for tickets. Schlegelmilch referred him to another Madison student, Edland said. But Edland could not remember the woman’s name.

Schlegelmilch said he referred Edland to Madison student Patrick Welch.

Welch refused to comment Tuesday when questioned about his role in the event.

Taylor and Edland both said they did not know what work they would be doing to receive tickets, and were only informed of the petition for Nader upon arriving at the event.

Vorachek, a Nader supporter, said he was aware the three of them would be collecting signatures for Nader before the event, but did not know it would be done in exchange for tickets.

The three said once at the event, they met with two men who showed them how to collect signatures for a petition to get Nader on the ballot. The men told them to remain quiet about their personal political affiliations.

“You couldn’t say anything supporting one candidate or the other,” Edland said.

They also were instructed to be discreet as to the motivation for the petition circulated at a Bush rally.

“He said, ‘Don’t say, hey, I’m a Republican, get Nader on the ballot,'” Taylor said.

Taylor and Edland estimated they collected more than 200 signatures from Bush supporters over a period of several hours before the rally.

“About half were signing it, and they were saying ‘Oh, yeah, that will help Bush.’ The other half looked at me like I was a moron,” Edland said. “Everyone at that rally would have been to the right of center, at the very least.”

After the rally began, Taylor and Edland said they exchanged their petitions for tickets; however, Vorachek said he was unaware of where the tickets came from.

“They maybe did give us the tickets for getting signatures for Nader,” he said. “It would make sense that that’s why we got tickets.”

Eau Claire County Board member and treasurer of the UW-Eau Claire College Republicans Benjamin Hack also was implicated as a petition circulator in a Wisconsin State Journal article, but no further details were available.

Hack refused to comment on his involvement.

Laurie Forcier, director of the Bush-Cheney campaign office in Eau Claire County, said she was unaware of any involvement in the scheme by members of her office.

“The people I’m working with are far too busy to be doing that,” she said.

She challenged Taylor’s accusation in a Wisconsin State Journal article that local Republican Party officials had instructed him to collect the signatures.

“I don’t know what officials he’s talking about,” said Forcier, the only paid Bush-Cheney campaign official in Eau Claire County.

The more than 200 signatures collected by Edland, Taylor and Vorachek were among the 3,228 given to Bill Linville, state director for the Nader campaign, by Madison College Republican Matt Holsen.

Linville said he became suspicious when Holsen refused to identify himself and ran away.

“Somebody gives you 3,000 signatures, and you just get a little suspicious,” he said.

Upon investigation, Linville found that most signatures came from known Republicans.

At that point, he decided not to submit the signatures to the State Elections Board.

“We didn’t want their help,” Linville said.

Circulators of the petition were required by law to sign a statement swearing, “I intend to support these candidates.”

The form warns that the submittion of false information is a felony.

Despite not submitting signatures collected by Republicans, Nader was able to collect the 2,000 signatures necessary to get on the state ballot, Linville said.

Harriet Allen, the Eau Claire-area coordinator for the Nader campaign, expressed disappointment in the situation.

She openly wondered why Bush supporters would adopt such techniques.

“What are they scared of?” Allen asked.”If Bush is good, they want Bush, then they should campaign for Bush.”