A vote for …

Vote your conscience. Vote Ralph Nader,” says a green and white notice that pops up on many computers.

Pat Buchanan’s campaign says, in effect, the same thing.

Both of these leading minority candidates in the presidential election speak as voices of sincerity, strong principle and disdain for the major candidates.

They are right in seeing some similarities between Vice President Al Gore and Gov. George W. Bush. Both are moderates who have accommodated with differing forces within their respective parties. But it is dead wrong to say, as George Wallace put it in an earlier close race that “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference” between them.

Most Americans already have perceived distinct differences between the vice president and the governor and have decided how to vote. Polls show that the race, both in popular vote and in electoral vote, is too close to call.

Those who agree with the policies and promises of Mr. Nader or Mr. Buchanan obviously have a perfect right to vote their consciences. At the same time, they should keep in mind the practical facts of the situation: Either Vice President Gore or Gov. Bush is going to be the next president. And, in as close a race as this one, votes for minority candidates could swing the election one way or another, in Maine and in a good many other states – enough to determine the outcome.

Aside from other considerations, a vote for Ralph Nader is a vote for George Bush, and a vote for Pat Buchanan is a vote for Al Gore.