Write-in Votes for Perot Will Not Count, Election Officials Say

If you write in Ross Perot for President on Tuesday, you might as well vote for Mickey Mouse for vice president while you’re at it.

Both write-in votes would be given the same treatment--ballots tossed out without ever being counted, election officials say.

Although Perot supporters are gathering the 134,781 signatures required to place the independent presidential candidate on California’s November ballot, the Texas tycoon is not among the 15 qualified write-in candidates for President in Tuesday’s state primary. The others qualified for the primary just by filing papers with election officials before the mid-May deadline.

Secretary of State March Fong Eu’s office is warning that an expected large number of write-in votes for Perot and his unofficial standing could delay election results.

“When you have to stop and eyeball each one of these, it’s going to add time into the process, especially if you have 300,000 of them,” said Melissa Warren, an aide to Eu.

Perot’s mushrooming popularity was enough to prompt Los Angeles County to change its ballot-counting procedures in hopes of avoiding delays in tabulating results.

In past years, ballots containing write-in votes on the envelope have been set aside on election nights to be counted in the following days. This year, election workers will separate envelopes bearing write-in votes for Perot from the ballots inside. The envelopes will be discarded and the computerized ballot cards will be sent on for processing.

However, one more pitfall awaits those who declare for Perot.

Election workers must check each write-in ballot to see if the name scribbled down is a qualified write-in candidate and to see if the voter also has punched out a name on the presidential ballot. Writing in Perot’s name and punching out a presidential candidate on the ballot--called an overvote--will disqualify the vote for the qualified presidential candidate.

Los Angeles County election officials could not predict how lengthy a delay they may face.

“We have been encouraging people who want to show their support for Ross Perot to sign his petition rather than write his name in,” Warren said.

The secretary of state’s office issued a memo reminding counties that state law prohibits counting write-in votes for unofficial candidates. “Do not count write-in votes for Ross Perot or for any other candidate not qualified as a write-in candidate,” says the memo. “However, election officials are not precluded from offering an opinion about the number of write-in votes cast or other perceptions they may wish to offer.”

The chairman of San Diego’s Perot petition drive also has urged supporters not to write in his name in Tuesday’s primary. “It’s just not an effective way to protest,” said Jack Flowers.

Mike Norris, Los Angeles County chairman of the Perot Petition Committee, said that voters inquiring about Perot are told: “If they want to write him in, fine, but they’re really not accomplishing anything.”

But--characteristic of the free-form Perot campaign--William Ransbottom, the Central Coast regional coordinator for Perot, said: “We’ve just left it to whatever (voters) care to do. They can write in ‘uncommitted’ or go ahead and write him in if they feel that strongly about it.

“In concurrence with the people in Dallas, we’re not dictating to anybody how they’re voting in a primary. That’s their freedom of choice,” Ransbottom added.

However, volunteers will be waiting outside many polling places, beyond the 100-foot limit, with Perot petitions, his campaign officials said.