Brown to Uplink With Voters in Unusual Modem Operandi

In another unconventional twist, Democratic presidential candidate Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. plans to hold an “electronic town meeting” tonight with computer users in their homes.

An estimated 200 of the 320,000 subscribers to the General Electric Network for Information Exchange (GENIE) will be able to transmit questions to Brown, who is then to respond via his computer. The electronic dialogue will be available to all subscribers.

So many computer enthusiasts are expected to participate that GENIE has sent bulletins urging those interested to transmit their questions before the two-hour forum officially begins at 6 p.m.

Brown spokesman Arthur Mortell said that the candidate decided to turn to computer communication to “give potential voters the rare opportunity to question a major candidate directly and receive an immediate answer.”

Much like cable television subscribers, computer network subscribers pay a monthly fee to receive and send information and messages over computer modems on a variety of topics.