1.   He said the party is still trying to get enough valid signatures to win ballot access in Texas.

2.   That announcement came as the Reform Party officially launched its own petition drive to win Texas ballot access in November.

3.   And if ballot access becomes such a challenge that he runs on lines won by the Perot party, he almost certainly would do so with no strings attached.

4.   As a ferocious master of party rules, ballot access and the outright, poker-faced bluff, Ickes could always threaten to tie Democratic conventions in knots.

5.   At least a dozen such parties, all with ballot access in their states, are expected to attend the meeting.

6.   Automatic ballot access means a party has gained enough votes in past elections so that it does not have to petition to get candidates on the ballot.

7.   But it should not tie ballot access to that issue if the result would be no legislation on either subject.

8.   Changes to the Florida Constitution two years earlier opened ballot access to more candidates.

9.   He was always considered a long shot, and the fight over ballot access may have hurt him.