A 32-year-old Cincinnati resident was among those who said they falsely signed petitions stating they had gathered the names Nader needs to qualify for the ballot in November.

"I was wrong in that. I shouldn't have done that," Gregory Reese Jr. told a hearing officer for the Ohio secretary of state's office.

The Ohio Democratic Party is backing a challenge to Nader's efforts to get on Ohio's ballot, where the party is concerned he could take away votes from Sen. John Kerry. In 2000, Nader got nearly 118,000 votes in Ohio, about 2.5 percent, while President Bush beat Al Gore by 3.5 percent.

Nader, an independent candidate, needs 5,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. County boards of election have certified 6,464. He has qualified for the ballot in Kentucky.

But a team of attorneys fighting the petitions is challenging more than 3,000 of those signatures on the basis that they were collected fraudulently by those paid to come in from outside Ohio.

Columbus attorney Donald McTigue said that, in his more than 20 years in the election-law business, "I have never seen a fraud so pervasive in this state."

Witnesses from Dayton, Kettering and Cincinnati all testified Tuesday that they falsely signed petitions claiming to have collected and witnessed signatures. Some said their signatures were forged.

An entire family from Dayton said Tuesday they had never heard of Ralph Nader, even though they signed as witnesses to signatures on nearly 100 petitions.

Others from Cincinnati, Cleveland and Lorain are expected to tell similar stories of fraud today. The hearing officer, assistant state elections counsel Gretchen Quinn, will recommend to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell how many, if any, signatures should be invalidated.

The evidence of fraud was so clear that attorneys representing Nader on Tuesday were agreeing to toss out more than 400 signatures.

"We are not here to defend people who are not going to follow procedure," said Daniel Hilson, a Columbus-area attorney hired by the Nader campaign, adding he was surprised by some of Tuesday's testimony.

"We're not necessarily here to win at all costs."

Reese said he was part of a team working to collect Nader signatures in Hamilton County. The team would meet at a Days Inn in Clermont County, where they would get paid for the signatures collected. Reese said he made about $500.

Reese said he signed off as the official circulator of 10 to 15 petitions at the request of the team's leader, a woman from California reportedly paid by Florida-based JSM Inc. to come to Ohio and get Nader on the ballot.

The Nader campaign hired JSM to collect signatures in a handful of states.

Reese said he collected some of his own signatures. But others were gathered by paid collectors who lived outside the state, which is illegal under Ohio law. So to make them appear legal, he was asked to sign off as a witness to the signatures, he said.

Clubok argued that all petitions signed by Reese - regardless of whether he collected them properly or not - should be tossed out.

"The fraud is so pervasive that you can't separate the fraudulent petitions from the non-fraudulent ones," Clubok said.

After the hearing, Reese said he was not the only person in the Cincinnati group asked to falsely sign-off on petitions.

The family of Jill Lane, 45, of Dayton told a similar story. She said her cousin, Michael Jones, who lives in California, was paid to come to Ohio and collect signatures for Nader.

But he needed her and three family members to sign off as witnesses for the petitions to appear legal. She and the others, including her fiancee and daughter, testified they were told the petitions were for the gay-marriage amendment.

Lane said she signed off on a number of petitions, but on several others, she said her name was forged.

"He said it was OK," Lane said, talking about her cousin, who paid her $20. Her cousin's colleague paid her another $20 to sign petitions he had collected.

Michael Bonham of Centerville testified he was working at a health club about six weeks ago when a couple from Los Angeles came in and offered him $25 to sign off as witnessing signatures on five petitions. His name was later forged on several more petitions, according to testimony.

Although no strict deadlines have been set, Blackwell is expected to make a decision by Sept. 28, the first day of absentee balloting.

James Lee, spokesman for the office, said that, although ballots are already being printed, if Nader doesn't qualify for the ballot, efforts will be made to remove his name.