Petitions Move Perot Nearer Candidacy : Politics: His supporters submit more than 200,000 signatures in campaign to place the billionaire’s name on the Texas ballot.

Behaving like a presidential candidate, Texas billionaire Ross Perot stepped closer to becoming one Monday as campaign volunteers filed petitions containing more than 200,000 signatures to place his name on the ballot in his home state.

Perot seized the moment to thank the legions of cheering volunteers who collected about four times the 54,275 signatures he needs to lock down a slot on the Texas ballot as an independent in the November election.

To celebrate, about 3,000 Perot volunteers rallied in a downtown park and marched about one mile through lunchtime traffic to the state Capitol. They chanted, “Run, Ross, Run” and carried signs reading: “Ross for Boss” and “Read My Lips; Perot for President” as a sound truck played John Philip Sousa marches.

Once at the Capitol, they presented the petitions to Texas Secretary of State John Hannah Jr. Monday was the deadline for qualifying as an independent on the state ballot.

Perot, his brow glistening in the early afternoon heat, sounded a lot like a candidate. “Congratulations on doing the job (political experts) said couldn’t be done,” he said.

“Now, you’ve set the standard for all of the big states in this country by delivering Texas. I guarantee you folks in California, New York, Florida and those other big states couldn’t sleep unless they at least matched you.”

He accused other candidates of trying to divide the nation into special-interest constituencies and pledged not to do that himself. “In plain Texas talk, if you hate other people, I don’t want your vote,” he said.

Calling his route to the presidential nomination “a maze too difficult to get through,” Perot ticked off the stringent Texas requirements, including gathering valid signatures from registered voters who didn’t participate in the March 10 presidential primary.

The process, he said, is designed to keep political mavericks from challenging mainstream Democratic and Republican candidates--but his supporters overcame the odds.

Sharon Holman, a Perot volunteer who serves as media coordinator for the campaign, said Perot would next get his name on the ballot in Maine, where workers have about four times the needed signatures.

Applications are also pending in New Hampshire and Delaware, and he is on the ballot in Tennessee and Utah.

Signature collecting in California is going “like crazy,” she said, because the workers in the state are “beautifully organized.” She predicted Perot would have no problem getting on the ballot in California and other big states. But she said New York--where GOP activists are questioning the validity of Perot’s signature drive--”was presenting a bit more of a challenge.”

Perot initially said he would not run unless volunteers placed his name on all 50 state ballots. But he has backed off that, saying he will run as long as he is running in most influential states.

Hannah told reporters that Perot will not be on the Texas ballot until the signatures are verified, which will take about a month. Texas has 32 votes in the Electoral College, trailing only California, with 54, and New York, with 33.

Perot, 61, made his fortune by founding a $2.5-billion computer services company. He has pledged to fund his campaign out of his own pocket, estimating that he will need about $100 million.

So far, he is doing well in the polls. A recent Times-Mirror Poll showed him statistically tied with President Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, and a Texas Poll showed him ahead of Bush and Clinton there.

Perot volunteer Ken Wallingford said Perot’s successful signature-gathering “is significant because a Republican candidate cannot win the White House without winning Texas.

The President has a problem in his adopted home state. If Bush doesn’t carry Texas, it would leave (the presidential campaign) wide open.”

That point seemed to be underscored by Perot’s supporters at the rally. Many, like A. B. Walters, a 40-year-old, self-employed building products salesman from Austin, said they now support Perot but had voted for Bush in the state’s primary and the 1988 election.

“I’m sick of the business as usual that passes for politics,” Walters said. “I think Perot can take (government) to the people.”