Perot still behind Clinton and Dole, surveys indicate
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 3, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Monday, November 4, 1996
PEROT:
Polls and Internet vote show Perot trailing in election’s
popular votesBy Marie Blanchard
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The last few months haven’t been the easiest for Ross Perot.
Trailing behind President Clinton and Bob Dole in almost every
poll, most experts agree that he won’t be receiving the 19 percent
of the popular vote he managed to muster in 1992.
Nevertheless, Perot’s campaign has been revolutionary in at
least one respect. Last August, Perot collected his nominations for
the Reform party through an Internet vote on the World Wide
Web.
This radical step in the spheres of politics and the Internet
was used by an estimated 11,000 people according to a New York
Times article (August 1995) .
"This was the first time something like this has ever been
done," said Tim Ross, Director of Operations of Networkers, the
company that constructed the nomination home page.
Despite the novelty of the concept, the results were not as
successful as some might have hoped.
"It was the low end of what we predicted (nominations). I have
no clear idea why," said Stan Osborne of ConXion, the company that
collected and inscripted the nomination results.
Problems cited by critics included the ability of voters to cast
nominations several times and the limited access of many to the
World Wide Web. Yet this is only the beginning problems, said
Osborne, who is sure that the Internet will play a larger and
larger role in presidential voting.
But he does warn that it will take years before the problems are
all ironed out. Until then, the local polling place will have to
do.
