
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990                   TAG: 9006200373
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RIGHT TO VOTE

REVOLUTIONS have been fought for it, including one more than 200 years ago not far from here. Subjugated peoples in Europe and elsewhere are struggling even now to gain - or regain - it. Democracy is a precious thing.

Now this flash from the West Coast. Speaking is Maria G. Reyes, a student and clothing salesclerk in the small city of Pinole:

"I don't know anything about politics. I was going to vote, but then I thought about it and thought I didn't know anything about it. If you don't understand it and you vote, you're going to mess things up. I don't watch news. I don't read. It's full of problems; it's one more headache."

Of course, not only 18-year-olds in California voice such views - when they have any views at all. The decline in voter participation has been a national trend over the past 30 years. But California has long been a pace-setter for the rest of the country in styles, morals, politics and a lot else. And people out there seem increasingly disengaged from the political process.

In the state's June 5 election - which included a heated contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and a number of controversial ballot initiatives - almost 75 percent of eligible adults did not vote. A reporter, talking to a sampling of adults at shopping malls, found people cynical about or uninterested in politics.

"If you don't understand it and you vote," said 18-year-old Maria Reyes, "you're going to mess things up." That's nothing compared to what can happen if you make no effort to understand and don't vote.

by CNB