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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995                   TAG: 9507100028
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LAWSUIT

CITIZEN groups should not have to sue Virginia's governor to get him to honor the law of the land. That, however, is what a coalition - including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Virginia NAACP, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women - is having to do, to try to force Gov. George Allen to heed the National Voter Registration Act, passed by Congress in 1993.

The act, also known as the motor-voter law, would enable qualified individuals to register to vote at the same time as they apply for or renew drivers licenses, or while attending to other matters at government offices. The intent is to encourage more people to vote, by making voter registration more user-friendly nationwide.

Allen argues that the law is an unfunded federal mandate and an unconstitutional usurpation of the rights of states to set their own voting rules. Funny, he raised no such objections in 1994 when Virginia voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Virginia Constitution enabling the Virginia General Assembly to enact implementing legislation, as the state lawmakers subsequently did.

In this state, particularly, restrictions on voting have a long and discreditable history. The effort to remove such barriers as the poll tax and literacy tests - which disfranchished thousands of blacks and poor whites, to the benefit of the Byrd machine - was led by Virginia Republicans. Now, ironically, it is a Republican governor who is afraid of broadening the electorate.

Allen's position on this issue is just plain wrongheaded. His reaction - vetoing the legislation; asking a federal court to overturn the law - is knee-jerk. He seems determined, with or without good cause, to make battles with the federal government a hallmark of his administration.

by CNB