PORTLAND - Ralph Nader fell 50 signatures short of getting on the presidential ballot on his second try in Oregon but he will try a third time to place his name before voters in November, his supporters said Thursday.

The Nader campaign gathered 950 valid signatures at a one-day convention on June 26 - just short of the 1,000 signatures needed under Oregon law, said Greg Kafoury, campaign spokesman.

Kafoury blamed the failure of the second attempt to make the ballot on "Democratic sabotage," a charge Democrats strongly denied.

"The dirty tricks of the Democratic Party of Oregon have succeeded," Kafoury said at a news conference at his Portland law office.

He claimed Democrats in Multnomah County, the most populous county in the state, deluged his office with phone calls before the convention to tie up his lines and then attended the convention to deliberately withhold their signatures.

Kafoury cited an e-mail from a Democratic volunteer that noted: "If we attend in large numbers and politely refuse to sign, Nader is denied his needed numbers. It's that simple."

Jim Edmunson, Democratic Party chairman in Oregon, dismissed the claims and suggested the Nader campaign has lost any real influence on Oregon voters because they fear he could play the role of spoiler in a close race between President Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry.

"I think Ralph Nader's era is rapidly coming to an end," Edmunson said.

"Plainly he's lost a tremendous amount of support. He ought to endorse the progressive campaign for John Kerry and John Edwards, otherwise he's just aiding and abetting the re-elect George Bush movement," Edmunson said.

Scott Ballo, spokesman for Americans Coming Together, a group working to support Kerry in 17 swing states including Oregon, said nobody has interfered with the Nader campaign in this state.

Ballo noted that Nader easily attracted 15,000 people to a campaign rally in 2000 but this year could barely draw about 750 to his first convention in Oregon, held April 6 in Portland.

"Obviously, Oregonians know this race is too important this time, and they're unifying behind one effort to defeat George Bush," Ballo said.

Kafoury also used the news conference to deny allegations in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by Democratic activist Ellen Lowe, who claims Nader has accepted help in Oregon from the Bush campaign and Citizens for a Sound Economy, a nonprofit group headed by former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

"We have sought nobody's help in this except the people," Kafoury said. "We do not want Democratic sabotage. We do not want Republican manipulation. All we want is a chance to talk to Oregonians about issues that the Republicans and Democrats don't want to talk about."

Ballo said the complaint was justified.

"They're reaching out to people that Ralph Nader has spent his entire career fighting just to get him on the ballot," Ballo said.