NEW YORK, Nov. 2— Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader returned to the Democratic fiefdom that is New York City today, closing his campaign with fiery speeches at rallies next to the New York Stock Exchange and Cooper Union’s Great Hall.

As supporters cheered, he urged them to choose a candidate based on platform, not party, assuring them it wouldn’t – as some critics have alleged – hurt Democrat John Kerry’s chances of taking the White House.

“John Kerry will landslide this state,” Nader told a lunchtime crowd of several hundred. “New Yorkers are free to vote their conscience.” He urged them to look beyond the options presented by the country’s two major parties. “A vote of objection is never a wasted vote. A vote of conscience is never a wasted vote,” he said.

Not that his supporters needed any convincing. “If I don’t vote my conscience, what sense is there of being an American?” said Gregg Rubin, who said he voted for Nader in 2000. Rubin added that casting a vote for Nader would be harder decision to make if he lived in one of the battleground states, where a vote for Nader could tip the balance of electoral votes.

But both the New York Stock Exchange and Cooper Union rallies were peppered with a handful of passionate protestors who hold Nader responsible for putting George Bush in the White House in 2000.

“Why are you helping elect George Bush?” they screamed as he delivered a campaign speech.

An informal poll taken outside Manhattan voting booths on Election Day indicated that discontent with Nader had not abated since 2000, when he some people felt he contributed to George Bush’s victory by taking votes that otherwise would have gone to Democrat Al Gore.

“I want to kill people who are so cavalier [about voting for Nader]. When push comes to shove, and you have a maniacal crazed person like Bush [as president], there are no alternatives,” said Roy Collins, 44, a Lower East Side resident. “I’ve been to every movement you can shake a stick at, and where was [Nader]? Where was he on 9/11, at gay pride? It’s a miracle people don’t attack him.”

“I’m furious at Nader [for running again],” agreed Frances Elfenbein, 68, after casting her vote in Murray Hill.

As a true independent, Nader is running without the support of a national party. The Green Party did not nominate him to run under its auspices this election, and he did not pursue the party’s favor as he had in the 2000. The Independent and Peace & Justice ticket he is running under was established for the purposes of the 2004 election only.

At today’s rallies, Nader urged the crowd to give third party candidates a chance.

But not everyone agreed. Aritha Hayes, 60, whose son is a Marine, said she was concerned about the impact the Nader vote will have on the war in Iraq. “Bush killed 1,100 children in Iraq, and Nader will take votes away from the one [candidate] that will bring the children home,” she said, referring to the number of American troops who have died there. “Nader should stay out of his way with his stupid 1 percent.”

The Nader campaign argued that Bush is the one who cost Gore the 2000 election, through political machinations allegedly carried out by the Republican Party.

Before the current election, Richard Winger, who runs a Web site that supports and tracks the ballot access of minor parties, said the data showed that Nader has not hurt Kerry.

“I think [Michael] Badnarik, [the Libertarian candidate], has a greater chance of changing the outcome than Nader,” he said.

Michael Richardson, who coordinated Nader’s ballot access nationwide, claims that the Democratic Party launched a fierce campaign of unjustified lawsuits to get the candidate off ballots. He said Nader canvassers in Oregon were wrongfully accused of submitting fraudulent signatures, while in Nevada Democrats argued that Peter Camejo, Nader’s running mate, was not a U.S. citizen and not eligible to run. (Camejo is of Venezuelan descent, but was born in New York.)

“Republicans are very good at keeping voters off the rolls. Democrats are very good at keeping candidates off the ballot,” Nader said at one rally. “One can never forget or forgive the politics of bigotry of the Democrats over the past months. It’s an attack on the millions of voters out there who needed and wanted to vote for a card of their choice.”

Frank Bradley, Jr., a fine arts teacher from Queens, said he voted for the first time in 25 years because Democrats hindered Nader’s access to the ballots.

“Anybody who steps up and challenges [the system] is going to get hammered. That’s wrong. That’s not democracy. If you are not voting with your conscience, what are you voting for?” he said.

Democratic District Leader Curtis Arluck acknowledged that his party had worked to keep Nader off the ballot. “[Nader] doesn’t have the people to get on the ballot. He’s relying on the Republican machine to get on the ballot,” he said, adding that the list of people who wanted Nader on the ballot included names like Donald Duck.

Win or lose, Nader’s post-election plans include instituting a national electoral campaign reform to unify ballot access under a single federal law and weaken the influence of corporate power.

“Public elections should not be sale,” he said.