Ross Perot delivered petitions with thousands of signatures to the Ohio secretary of state's office on Monday, in a bid to qualify his new political party on the 1996 ballot.
Meanwhile, the group that supported Perot's independent presidential candidacy in 1992 filed a federal election complaint against the Texas billionaire and his attempt to form the party.Federal Election Commission officials said they had not yet received a complaint, which must filed by first class mail.
Ohio is one of three states with 1995 deadlines for qualifying for the 1996 presidential ballot. Perot's group, known in Ohio as the Reform Party, has already qualified for next year's ballot in California and has until Dec. 14 to qualify for the ballot in Maine.
Supporters had until Monday to collect a minimum of 33,463 signatures of registered voters to qualify the new party for the ballot. Perot said the petitions contained between 50,000 and 51,000 signatures.
Ohio Secretary of State Bob Taft was on hand to accept eight bread box-size cartons of petitions. Taft said the verification process will take about three weeks.