Officials Clarify Voting Status of Perot Backers

Los Angeles County election officials said Monday that newly enlisted members of Ross Perot’s Reform Party are eligible to vote in today’s local elections as long as they were duly registered voters before switching to the Perot organization last month.

However, those who were not registered to vote in the county before signing registration cards with the Reform Party in October cannot vote today, said officials of the county registrar-recorder’s office. State law requires prospective voters to be registered at least 28 days before Election Day to be eligible to cast ballots in the election.

The registration deadline for today’s voting was Oct. 13. The Perot group began registering voters in early October through Oct. 24 to qualify the party for the ballot beginning with the March, 1996, primary election.

New Reform Party members have been receiving form letters advising them that their voter registration cards had not been received by county officials “within the legal time limit” for voting today.

County officials said Monday such letters applied only to those who were not registered at all before joining the Reform Party. Members of other parties, or those who had been registered as independents and who re-registered as Reform Party members, can vote.