CARSON CITY, Nev. - The state Democratic Party and three women who said they were tricked into signing a petition supporting Ralph Nader for president filed Tuesday for a court order to get him off the Nevada ballot.

The petition filed in Carson City District Court alleges the Nader petition and signature-gather process was "so tainted with misrepresentations, falsity, forgery, misconduct and deceit as to taint its integrity in its entirety."

Attorney Paul Larsen of the prominent Lionel Sawyer & Collins law firm sought an expedited hearing and court order directing Secretary of State Dean Heller to revoke his previous certification giving Nader a spot on the November ballot.

Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese denied that there was any trickery in the signature-gathering process that resulted in Nader supporters turning in 8,681 valid signatures. They needed at least 5,015 signatures.

Zeese added Democrats "just don't trust the voters to make a choice and don't have confidence in their candidate's ability to compete. … They're grasping at straws."

Nader has said that Democrats who see his independent campaign as a threat to Kerry's candidacy are afraid of the democratic process. He also said the Democratic-Republican party lock on the electoral system hurts the country.

Chris Carr, the state Republican Party's executive director, rejected claims by state Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers that Nevada Republicans funded the Nader signature-gathering effort, terming the claim "totally untrue."

"Obviously we're happy to have Nader on the ballot," he added. "Anyone who is qualified should have the right to run. We had to deal with it in 1992 when Nevada had Ross Perot on the ballot. In this cycle, the Democrats have their Ross Perot."

Recent polls show President Bush and Kerry locked in a tight Nevada contest, with Nader getting 2 percent to 4 percent of the vote in this battleground state.

Bush got 49.5 percent of the Nevada vote in 2000, while Democrat Al Gore got 46 percent and Nader got 2.5 percent when he ran as a Green Party candidate.

In his complaint, Larsen said Myrna and Renee McKinley were asked to sign petitions in July to repeal taxes, but what they signed were Nader petitions. He added Joan Ward signed a similar petition after being told her signature was needed to change her voter registration from nonpartisan to Democrat.

The three women, all from the Las Vegas area, joined the state Democratic Party in seeking the court order. They were among more than 50 people named in documents alleging they signed the Nader petition under false pretenses. Also included were sworn statements from several people who said their names were forged.

Larsen said that when the improperly obtained and bogus signatures are totaled, several thousand names have to be rejected - and that leaves the Nader advocates short of the minimum 5,015 signatures they needed.