Thursday, September 19, 1996

Choate missed deadline to be on Texas ballot By STEVE RAY
Harte-Hanks Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Texans won't get the chance to vote for Ross Perot's vice-presidential choice in 1996 - even if they vote for Perot.

Secretary of State Tony Garza recently sent a memo to county clerks telling them not to put colorful economist Pat Choate's name on the ballot as Perot's running mate.

He missed the deadline.

Instead, Texans who vote for the Dallas billionaire will also be voting for vice-presidential stand-in James Campbell, a 69-year-old Perot supporter from California.

The last day for Campbell to withdraw from the ballot was Sept. 3. The deadline for replacing him with Choate was Sept. 6.

Perot didn't name Choate as his vice-presidential running mate until Sept. 10, after a former U.S. senator and at least two members of Congress turned down the job.

Actually, the whole vice-presidential flap may be much ado about nothing. Presidents and vice-presidents are elected by electors, not popular votes. And Texans won't really be voting for Bill Clinton, Bob Dole or Ross Perot on Nov. 5. They'll be voting for 32 electors who represent those candidates.

Unlike regular voters who cast ballots for a president-vice-president ticket, electors cast two votes - one for president and one for vice-president. And they can change their minds.

In 1992, one Texas elector said he was not going to vote for Bush but eventually did. In West Virginia, one elector switched the candidates and voted for Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice-president.

But a Federal Election Commission spokeswoman said only seven electors in the last century have not voted for the person who won the popular vote, and no defecting elector has ever changed the outcome of an election.