[EM] Winning the Reform Party's Nomination Is Not Simple

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Note especially the  -- 

If more than two candidates wind up running, each voter will be asked to


list all the candidates in order of preference.

 --- sentence

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Winning the Reform Party's


Nomination Is Not Simple


By DENNIS FARNEY 


Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

October 26, 1999




Strange things kept befalling Dick Lamm as he fought a losing fight against


Ross Perot for the 1996 Reform Party presidential nomination.



At one point, the former Colorado governor couldn't get his hands on a


Reform Party ballot so that he could vote for himself. Meanwhile, other


people around the country were receiving more ballots than they could


handle. "I personally got seven," recalls Phil Madsen, a party founder in


Minnesota. "There was nothing to prevent me from voting seven times." When


Mr. Lamm tried to get a copy of the party mailing list, the party wouldn't


let him have one. "To put it mildly, it was a rigged process," charges Lamm


campaign manager Tom D'Amore Jr.



But things will work better this time around, won't they? Don't bet on it,


says Mr. D'Amore.



Now, Donald Trump and Patrick Buchanan have left the Republican Party and


set their sights on the 2000 nomination -- Mr. Buchanan with a fiery attack


Monday on "the money boys and the Beltway elites" and a vow to beat them


with what he called his "peasant army." And so, the Reform Party begins


anew a gigantic, convoluted experiment in cyberdemocracy. Even if


everything in this race goes by the book, the book itself charts a bizarre


nomination process. There are multiple ways a person can vote in the


party's presidential primary: by Internet, by phone, by mail or in person.


If more than two candidates wind up running, each voter will be asked to


list all the candidates in order of preference.



There will be a national convention. But because the votes already will


have been tabulated then, the results of the presidential race will almost


certainly be known, at least to party insiders, before the first state


delegation even casts its vote.



Not to worry, party officials say: It's all computerized.



"You hear scare stories of convicts, insane people and 12-year-olds voting.


That's not going to happen," says party spokeswoman Donna Donovan. "There


are checks and balances" -- among them Personal Identification Numbers to


prevent double or multiple voting. Finally, she notes, the convention has a


"fail-safe" mechanism: If delegates believe that the voting has been


fraudulent, they can overturn the results by a two-thirds vote.



"I don't see risks" in the nomination process, says outgoing party Chairman


Russell Verney. "I see genius in it."



Collecting Signatures



The genius, as Mr. Verney sees it, is that the process compels would-be


nominees to expand the party in the process of seeking the party's


nomination. It does this by giving them a big incentive to petition their


way onto the ballot, as a Reform Party candidate, in the 29 states and the


District of Columbia where the Reform Party isn't yet guaranteed a spot on


the 2000 general election ballot. The incentive is that each qualified


voter that candidates sign up will then be entitled to vote in the Reform


Party presidential primary and, presumably, will vote for them.



"The party, as it has been built so far, has a replacement value of about


$6 million dollars," Mr. Verney figures. "If somebody wants the nomination,


they're going to have to bring something to the table." In fact, they might


have to bring quite a bit to the table. Because getting those signatures


could cost big money -- maybe another $6 million or so.



Why? Because it isn't enough to rely upon idealistic volunteers when


mounting a petition drive of this magnitude. Rather, candidates usually


must also turn to professional signature-gathering organizations, which


pound the pavements for a fee. "Two dollars a signature is the going rate,"


says Roger Stone, the political consultant who has directed New York


developer Mr. Trump's presidential exploratory campaign. "But if there's


competition, that could drive the cost up to $4 or $5 a signature. Getting


on the ballot in those 29 states could cost $6 to $8 million."



That kind of money is pocket change for Mr. Trump, but it could be a


daunting obstacle for Mr. Buchanan. "I don't think Pat's got the table


stakes," Mr. Stone says.



Whither Perot?



There is another man for whom money is no object: billionaire Ross Perot,


the founder of the party. One conspiracy theory has the mercurial Mr. Perot


doing the same thing he did in 1996 -- jumping into the race himself. The


chances of this happening? "About 105%," ventures Mr. D'Amore, the Lamm


campaign manager.



Mr. Lamm also fears the worst. In 1996, "they said it was going to be an


open process, I talked with Ross Perot and he assured me it was going to be


an open process, but it was in no way an open process," Mr. Lamm says. "I


should have seen it coming." Further complicating matters this time is the


wild card of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who favors Mr. Trump. In the


1996 process, Mr. Perot portrayed himself as a white knight riding in to


save the party from chaos.



Next July 2, the party's presidential nominating committee announces which


candidates have qualified for the presidential primary by collecting


signatures. The minimum requirement is that a candidate get on the ballots


of enough states to comprise at least a majority of the electoral votes of


the 29 states. (Each state has different requirements. Some states won't


have closed their ballot-access process by then; for those states, the


nominating committee will rule on which candidates are making a good-faith


effort.) Then, sometime between July 4 and the August convention in Long


Beach, Calif., the presidential primary will be held.



There are three ways voters can qualify to participate in the primary: By


signing a candidate's petition, by being certified as a party member by the


state party, or by simply asking their state party for permission to


participate.



Tabulating Primary Results



The results are then tabulated by computer. "It's a very simple computer


program, a simple spreadsheet," says Michael Farris, its designer and a


Reform Party activist since 1993. A big-name accounting firm will be asked


to oversee the operation. Still, he adds, "I'm going to be sweating and


having ulcers all the way to the convention."



An obvious ulcer-producing situation occurs if more than two candidates


run, and no candidate receives a majority in the first round of voting. Mr.


Farris, dubbed "the guru" of the process by party insiders, explains what


would happen next:



Assume, for simplicity's sake, a race of three candidates: A, B and C. In


the first round of voting, C receives the smallest number of first-choice


votes; thus C is forced to drop out. The computer then takes a look at whom


C's voters picked as their second choices. These second-choice votes are


added to the votes A and B already have. By definition, this results in a


majority for one or the other. "Third-choice votes would come into play


only if there are four candidates," Mr. Farris says.



If only to make the convention more interesting, the vice-presidential


candidate is nominated and chosen a different way: by the delegates


themselves. As for deciding who is entitled to become a delegate, well,


that's a story in itself. "Each state Reform Party has its own rules for


selecting delegates," explains Pat Benjamin, the current vice chairman.



Sound complicated? Not really, Reform Party officials maintain. "You should


see the rules the Democrats have," spokeswoman Ms. Donovan says.