Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They also can register to vote.
Jim Heilman, the voter registrar for Albemarle County, credits the DMV with bringing in more than 10,000 voters since 1988 and vaulting the county above the statewide percentage of eligible adults on voting rolls.
"It's a brief procedure that does not take long at all," Heilman said. "People either come in because they know they can register there or they see the sign and say, `While I'm here, I'll register too.'''
But motorists in Albemarle County and four other Virginia localities will lose that option as Republican Gov. George Allen mounts a legal challenge to the federal "motor-voter" law.
Allen contends that the 1993 law, in which Congress required certain state offices to provide voter registration, is an unconstitutional federal mandate that would cost Virginia millions of dollars.
Last month, the Allen administration ordered DMV employees in five localities that had gotten a head start on the federal law to stop signing up voters.
Critics contend the state-local partnerships were a success and, if implemented statewide, would help improve Virginia's record of registering eligible adults, which is fifth-lowest in the nation.
They say Allen axed DMV participation in voter registration because it undercut his legal argument that the motor-voter bill would disrupt the delivery of state services.
"It's the absolutely worst thing to do," said Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, a Democrat.
"Maybe this will make their weak legal argument look more consistent statewide, but it's not going to make a difference in a lawsuit that the state cannot win and is just wasting taxpayer money."
California and Illinois challenged motor-voter in separate federal lawsuits, both of which failed.
Virginia - led by Allen and Attorney General Jim Gilmore - pressed ahead Thursday with a renewed legal assault in U.S. District Court in Richmond.
A Gilmore spokesman said the lawsuit is stronger than those presented by California and Illinois because it raises specific questions about the potential for voter fraud and provides detailed information about the costs associated with motor-voter.
For instance, DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb submitted an affidavit saying his agency would need $455,673 in start-up costs for motor-voter and would have annual expenses of $174,393.
Holcomb said DMV workers spend an extra four minutes with each person who registers to vote.
"This means that if a customer were the 11th person in line at a DMV license renewal counter, that customer would have to stand in line an additional forty minutes before being served," Holcomb said in his affidavit.
Those familiar with voter registration at DMV offices took issue with Holcomb's conclusions.
"This cooperative arrangement has worked smoothly and has been a program that has pleased both DMV and the Office of Voter Registration," Charlotte W. Cleary, registrar for Arlington County, said in a recent letter asking Holcomb to reconsider.
"I have sung its praises far and wide as ... the best example of state and local cooperation in Virginia," Cleary said.
Heilman, the Albemarle County registrar, said that while he occasionally has heard complaints from individual DMV workers, the manager of the local DMV office has never sought to end the agency's role in registering voters.
"I think at times they have felt it imposed on their work, but those times are temporary and intermittent," he said.
DMV employees also registered voters in Winchester, Harrisonburg and Stafford County.
Allen may not have the authority to end the practice, because some DMV offices have been designated as voter registration sites under the federal Voting Rights Act.
Holcomb said local DMV managers have told him that voting registration disrupts business and makes for longer lines. He said the four-minute figure cited in his affidavit is not based on a study, but on anecdotal evidence.
"I don't go to Ukrops to get gas," he said, referring to a Richmond grocery store chain. "Our mission is vehicle- and driver-related. I don't think registering voters is part of our mission."
by CNB