Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090206
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Virginia's voter-registration laws have been made more user-friendly in recent years. Even so, an estimated 40 percent of eligible adults in the commonwealth have not registered to vote. And voter-turnout rates, while advancing a bit, are still no cause for pride.
In the 1992 presidential election, Virginia turnout ranked 37th in the country - below the national average of 55.2 percent, which is also nothing to brag about. In the '93 governor's election, turnout was lower than four years earlier.
Guess what: Study after study links turnout with relative ease of registration. States with fewest registration restrictions show the best election-participation. So why not ease registration further?
Under last year's national voter-registration reform signed by President Clinton, states will be required to remove some old barriers and inconveniences. Virginia, for instance, must amend its constitution to allow voters to register by mail.
But the motor-voter law - so called because a main feature provides for voter registration when citizens apply for or renew driving licenses - isn't the be-all, end-all of state efforts to increase turnout. Virginia can do more.
As a priority, lawmakers should move as quickly as possible to shrink the current 29-day gap between the registration deadline and Election Day.
State Board of Election officials contend it takes this long to process and print up-to-date registration lists and return them to localities so that polling-place workers can identify bona fide voters. That's absurd.
To be sure, even in this computer age, some lag time between registration cutoff and voting still is necessary. But a month? The last 30 days before an election is the very time when political interest peaks. If citizens, including those who may have just moved to Virginia, decide during this period that they have a stake in the election's outcome and want to vote, they deserve better from the state than "tough luck."
The too-early cutoff puts accommodation for bureaucrats above convenience for citizens, and that's wrong.
Three states - Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin - now allow voters to register at the polls on Election Day. Virginia may be years away from same-day registration, but officials ought to push faster toward that goal. Indeed, several states demographically similar to Virginia have been able to move registration deadlines to within two weeks or 10 days of elections. Why can't we?
In addition, Virginians should study other voting innovations and experiments elsewhere - and perhaps consider a few of our own.
Oregon, Washington and Colorado have introduced all-mail balloting for some off-year and local elections, and this seems to be stimulating voting. Virginia shouldn't want to remain forever the Can't-Do-That-Cause-We-Never- Have state.
A Texas experiment stretches voting over nearly a month, which is too much. (Those casting ballots early can't change their votes in response to last-minute campaign developments.) But why not vote over a two-day period, as opposed to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November?
Why not (except in national elections where federal law prescribes it) vote on days other than Tuesdays, when workday obligations can crowd voting off citizens' schedules? Why not vote on a Saturday and Sunday? Or in June, when the weather is more conducive?
Or why not, as University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato has long recommended, declare Election Day Tuesday a state holiday? That would underscore the significance of the voting right in our democracy.
Surely we can get rid of unnecessary bureaucratic barriers, the better to exercise and celebrate this right.
Thursday: Fewer election days, please.
by CNB