Perot’s ‘Town Hall’ Format Short on Specifics

Prospective presidential candidate Ross Perot enthusiastically pressed his idea of “electronic town halls” in a recent interview with TV Guide, but was unclear on the format or technology that might be used for the forums.

As he has in past interviews, Perot described his idea as “the old town hall meeting, expanded, using modern technology. . . . It is democracy in its purest form.”

But when pressed on how he would organize the shows to keep them informative and allow the public to respond electronically, Perot acknowledged that the idea is still evolving.

“I’ll give you my idea today, and I will also guarantee you that when it’s two years old, it’ll be a whole lot better than on Day 1 because we will keep it dynamic,” he said in the interview, which appears in this week’s edition of the television magazine.

Perot, a Texas billionaire who is expected soon to announce his independent bid for the White House, said he envisioned non-confrontational shows involving members of Congress, Cabinet members and experts speaking to the public about possible solutions to the nation’s problems.

“Then let the people respond by congressional district,” he said, possibly by interactive television.

He was asked if he would use a system similar to the Minitel computer-and-phone system in France, in which the government distributed small phone computers en masse to create an interactive network.

“I hate to admit this, but I never even heard about it until you brought it up,” Perot said. “I don’t know anything about it, which is kind of embarrassing for a guy in the computer business who does a lot of business in France.”

The interactive part of the effort might be done by postcard, he said. “That’s about as basic as I can get,” he said. “Who knows what we could come up with to get people involved in the process again.”

Asked if electronic voting might circumvent the Constitution and result in a form of mob rule, Perot responded that his proposal would be better than the current reliance politicians place on polls when making decisions.

“Isn’t it a step forward to have a rational policy made out of a long, thoughtful discussion on national TV?” he asked.

After hearing from the people, “Congress can still vote its conscience, and so can the President. You’ve still got all kinds of checks and balances,” he added.