ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608190096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VALLEY FORGE, PA.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reform Party members chose Ross Perot to be their first-ever presidential candidate, opting for the third party's founder over challenger Richard Lamm, it was announced Saturday.
The results, released by party chairman Russ Verney, showed that Perot received 32,145 votes, or 65 percent, and Lamm received 17,121 votes, or 35 percent. Verney said the Texas billionaire, who was to arrive here today to accept the nomination, was ``very pleased to hear the results.''
Perot has spent millions building the fledgling party, which is on ballots in some form in 40 states. Lamm, a former Colorado governor, knew he would have difficulty winning.
The Reform Party named its candidate three days after the Republicans nominated Bob Dole at a traditional political convention in San Diego and nine days before the Democrats convene in Chicago to nominate President Clinton for a second term.
Although some 1.1million ballots were mailed to eligible voters within the party, only approximately 49,000 votes were tallied in the final balloting overseen by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, Verney said.
Verney told CNN that Perot was ``very pleased to hear the results.''
Of the low level of participation among eligible party members, he said: ``This is a whole new process, how people are going to be able to select the nominee of their own party. ... We're very proud of everyone who did take part in this process and selected who their nominee's going to be this year to go into the general election.''
The nominating contest was touted as a new electronic convention, yet most people didn't bother to avail themselves of two of the three ways to vote - by phone or by the Internet. Instead, they mailed in their ballots - 88 percent of them - Verney said. Eight percent of the votes were cast by phone, and 4 percent by computer message.
Verney also told reporters there were more invalid telephone votes - 64,078 - than total valid votes. Only 3,963 valid votes were by telephone, he said.
Verney said he does not expect a vice presidential announcement from Perot for a while: ``He will take his time and make a good decision.''
Lamm had given himself a 1-in-3 chance of beating Perot, and complained that he was put at a disadvantage throughout the primary. He said that in the process, some voters did not receive ballots while others received multiple ballots - raising questions about the validity of the results.
But he supports the reform movement. ``I think that right here in Valley Forge we're bringing together a group of people where we're going to grow the reform movement to keep those other two parties honest, or make them honest again, I hope,'' Lamm said in an interview before the results were announced.
``It's a wonderful life, either way,'' he said when asked what he would do if he lost. He plans to go back to teaching at the University of Denver and return to the lecture circuit.
This is not Perot's first run for the presidency. In 1992, he ran as an independent, garnering 19 percent of the popular vote.
This year, he will be facing an uphill battle. A poll Newsweek conducted last week as the Republican National Convention came to a close had Dole and Clinton statistically tied. Clinton had 44 percent support, Dole received 42 percent, and the then-undetermined Reform Party candidate received only 3 percent.
Verney pointed out that Perot had low poll ratings in 1992 at the beginning of his campaign. He said when the Texan has talked to the country in the past, people have responded.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Reform Party National Convention. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT MGRby CNB