Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509090004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Speaking last week at the traditional Labor Day kickoff of the campaign season, he said he wants Virginians to consider this fall's legislative elections a referendum on his Republican administration.
So it would be unfair to wonder whether our governor trusts the voters. Right?
Well, maybe not. Not when Allen continues to block Virginia's compliance with the National Voter Registration Act, the so-called Motor-Voter Law that is swelling voter rolls in virtually every state where it has been implemented.
Not when Allen's resistance to the federal law is a shameful repudiation of Virginia voters' own 1994 mandate to elected leaders to abide by the law - the purpose of which is to make it easier for citizens to register to vote.
Not when a potential effect of Allen's obstinacy could be to weaken the voice that Virginia voters will have in future national elections. (Virginia's electorate almost surely will not grow as rapidly as in other states that are following the national registration procedures.)
The law, in fact, is bringing about what experts say is the greatest expansion of voter rolls in the nation's history. More than 5 million Americans have registered to vote in the eight months since motor-voter was enacted - a surge that wasn't matched when women first got the right to vote or when 18-year-olds were brought into the fold.
The driving influence is the driving influence: Those eligible can conveniently register to vote at motor-vehicle offices when they receive or renew a driver's license - thus the motor-voter moniker. While the law also permits registration by mail and at a select few other government agencies, it's the motor-voter concept that appears to be responsible for most of the massive sign-up. Says a Georgia official: ``People are amazed and pleased that the government is taking steps to make life easier for them.''
Though congressional Republicans feared the law might benefit Democrats by encouraging the (gasp) registration of poor and disadvantaged people, early indications are that the surge is mostly among independent-minded individuals who don't hew to any party line. Maybe both Republican and Democratic politicians have to speak more to the concerns of middle America if they want to win these new voters' hearts and minds.
But Gov. Allen wouldn't be worried about that. No, he opposes motor-voter because, he says, it's an unfunded federal mandate. He seems to forget that the federal government doesn't fund any program. The taxpayers do. And he opposes it because it might cause increased voter fraud. Might - but other states are seeing no evidence of that.
Most disingenuously of all, Allen claims the law intrudes on states' rights. He is the intruder, imposing his own will against Virginia's place, overwhelmingly confirmed by its voters, in a national movement to expand democracy. Dare he call for a referendum on this issue?
by CNB