Petitions Submitted to Qualify Perot for Ballot : Politics: 55,588 signatures were collected in Ventura County to aid the Texan’s undeclared bid for the presidency. Volunteers report being overwhelmed by his support.

Supporters of Ross Perot for President submitted 55,588 signatures to Ventura County elections officials Wednesday to help qualify Perot for the November general election ballot in California.

Although Perot has yet to announce his presidential candidacy, supporters said they collected the signatures of more than 17% of the county’s registered voters in about two months. Volunteers said they were overwhelmed by an outpouring of support to put the Texas billionaire on the ballot.

“This is the beginning of a new American revolution,” said Perot volunteer Bob Reid, 62, of Camarillo, mixing with a crowd of almost 200 Perot supporters who gathered at the Ventura County Government Center.

Members of the group, many decked out in colorful red-white-and-blue garb and sporting Perot buttons, signs and T-shirts, were among the 2,000 Perot volunteers who gathered signatures mostly at shopping centers.

Jim Ritchey of Camarillo, co-chairman of the county petition drive for Perot, said the Ojai area is a hotbed of Perot support, generating about 10% of the signatures collected.

Ritchey told the rally that another 43,120 Perot signatures were gathered in Santa Barbara County and an additional 15,539 names were collected in San Luis Obispo County.

“No one was paid in Ventura County,” Ritchey proudly told the rally outside the Hall of Administration. “We’re all volunteers.”

Perot activists then stacked their signs outside the building and crowded into the basement, where 3,141 pages of petitions packed in 17 cartons were handed over to Richard D. Dean, the county registrar of voters, for verification.

Ventura County volunteers were among the thousands nationwide rising to the challenge issued by Perot that he would run for President if he qualified for the ballot in all 50 states. Although he has not announced his candidacy, Perot has assembled a campaign apparatus of top advisers and strategists.

The Texas industrialist must gather signatures of 1% of the California voters who cast ballots in the last statewide election, held in November, 1990. The signatures--a minimum of 134,781--must then be verified by local voting officials in the state’s 58 counties.

The deadline for forwarding the names to the secretary of state in Sacramento is Aug. 7.

Bruce Bradley, Ventura County’s assistant registrar, said his staff has 24 workdays to verify the signatures turned in on Wednesday. He said a random sample of 3% of the signatures would be conducted rather than scrutinizing every name.

Volunteers in other California counties were expected to turn in their Perot signatures to registrars Wednesday and today as well.

To mark this occasion, Perot, 61, has scheduled appearances today in Sacramento and Irvine to thank the volunteers. Traveling with the Texan is the California Perot for President petition committee chairman, Bob Hayden of Ventura.

Perot supporters who gathered at the county government center on Wednesday represented a broad political and demographic spectrum.

They voiced their disenchantment with the major party candidates and with the American political system in general. Some said it was the first time that they had ever planned to vote outside of their registered party for a presidential candidate.

“People have become very cynical,” said Lynn Braitman of Ventura, co-chairwoman of the Perot petition drive in Ventura County. “People are saying, ‘What happened to campaign reform?’ ” she said.

Lou Lincoln, 47, of Ventura said she and her husband were impressed by Perot’s integrity. She said she was a registered Democrat, her husband a Republican.

“It’s the first time we’ve agreed on anything in politics,” she said.

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