THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040502
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
People who drop by the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Albemarle County have been doing more than picking up new license plates or posing for unflattering photographs.
They have been registering 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 may lose that option as Republican Gov. George F. Allen mounts a legal challenge to federal a ``motor-voter'' law.
DMV employees also have registered voters in Arlington, Winchester, Harrisonburg and Stafford County.
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 the five localities that had gotten a head start on the federal law to stop signing up voters.
Critics contend that the state-local partnerships were a success and, if implemented statewide, would improve Virginia's record of registering eligible adults, which ranks fifth lowest in the nation.
Critics say Allen axed DMV participation in voter registration because it undercut his legal argument that motor-voter would disrupt the delivery of state services.
``It's the absolutely worst thing to do,'' said Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., 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 James S. Gilmore III - 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 very detailed information about the costs associated with motor-voter.
For instance, DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb submitted an affidavit saying that his agency would need $455,673 in start-up costs for motor-voter and annual expenses of $174,393.
Holcomb said that 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 40 minutes before being served,'' Holcomb said in his affidavit.
Those familiar with the 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 occassionally 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 intermitent,'' he said.
Allen may not have the authority to end the practice with approval of the U.S. Justice Department because some DMV offices have been designated as voter registration sites under the Voting Rights Act.
Holcomb said that 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. by CNB