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

DATE: MONDAY, October 24, 1994                   TAG: 9410250008
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OTHER ISSUES

TWO OTHER proposed constitutional amendments are on the Nov. 8 ballot, the most important of which would make voter-registration easier. We recommend that voters approve it.

The state constitution now says that individuals who want to vote must appear in person and fill out an application before a voter registrar. It also says a citizen's registration will be voided if he or she does not vote at least once in four years, and does not respond to a cancelation notice. If in this process citizens' names are purged from qualified-voter lists, they must go to the trouble of re-registering for future elections.

In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act that requires Virginia (along with other states) to offer more registration options for federal elections - including registration by mail. It also prohibits states from canceling a voter's right to cast a ballot in federal elections because of past failure to vote.

Even without a federal mandate, this change in the state constitution would be well worth making. Though Virginia recently has made strides toward user-friendly voter-registration, unnecessary barriers remain. This, at a time when 40 percent of eligible Virginians aren't registered, and voter-turnout rates are dangerously low. (Study after study links turnout with relative ease of registration.)

In any case, the issue is no longer whether Virginia should have registration by mail. Under federal law, it must have it for federal elections. The constitutional amendment merely will allow the legislature to bring voter-registration rules for state and local elections into compliance with the federal rules. Rejection of the amendment would create an unnecessary expense for taxpayers, likely confusion for voters and a bureaucratic nightmare for state officials, who would have to keep two separate lists of voters - one for federal elections; another for state and local contests.

The other proposed amendment involves somewhat esoteric provisions for gubernatorial vetoes and gubernatorial amendments to bills passed by the legislature. It would clarify and make more orderly the procedures for vetoes, veto-overrides and final amendments for legislation, which seems reason enough for a "yes" vote.

by CNB