Veteran GOP Director Leads Charge in Voter Registration Campaign

Half a dozen Republican volunteers sipped coffee and studied precinct maps one recent Saturday as a middle-aged lady in running shoes explained the plan.

With a few well-chosen words, organizer Marcia Gilchrist--described by one admirer as “a very gracious drill sergeant” for Orange County’s Republican registration drive--gave a 17-year-old high school student, a Vietnamese businessman and the father of a state legislator their marching orders.

“First thing, you are going to say: ‘I am working for the Republican Party,’ ” Gilchrist said. Then sound out potential voters, she said, asking, “Do you support President Reagan?” And: “Do you want to get rid of (state Supreme Court Chief Justice) Rose Bird?” If a voter sounded like a Democrat, she said, thank him for his time and try the next house.

Under state law, those who register voters are required to give a registration card to anyone who asks, and if any Democrat insisted on being registered, “we’re not going to turn them down,” Gilchrist said. “But we want to be registering Republican voters.”

Fueled by coffee, doughnuts and pep talks by Gilchrist, precinct director for the Orange County Republican Party, GOP workers here have built up the largest margin of registered Republicans over registered Democrats in 54 years. It also is the largest countywide margin in the state.

As of Friday, registration figures for the county are 384,556 Democrats to 583,919 Republicans. Statewide, however, the latest numbers show the Democrats leading Republicans, 6,373,020 to 4,773,579. But the Republicans, with a well-financed, year-round drive, are gaining steadily on statewide rolls, said Melissa Warren, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office.

“It probably won’t be very much longer before California goes Republican,” she said. Since January, she added, Democratic registrations have gone down by about 1% and Republican registrations have gone up by 1%.

Voter rolls for the November election close Monday, and in the final days before the deadline, a small army of paid and volunteer workers from both parties has hit the streets to register voters.

Gilchrist’s drive in Orange County, with three phone banks, 4,000 volunteers and a $200,000 budget, is a smaller version of the massive Republican statewide effort. That drive, which began 16 months ago, has cost more than $1 million and included 58 county committees, 38 Republican clubs, 10,000 volunteers and another 2,000 paid workers, or “bounty hunters,” who receive $1 to $4 for each new Republican registration.

Democrats’ Operation

The Democrats have a less centralized operation. Still, throughout the state about 320 clubs and thousands of volunteers have participated in the party’s $430,000-registration drive this year. In Orange County, the effort has included one phone bank, 15 to 40 volunteers each weekend, 250 paid workers and a $65,000 budget.

Despite being out-registered in the county, the Democrats have been fighting back since August. With newspaper ads and flyers distributed at unemployment offices, they recruited part-time registration workers.

Those paid workers and a sprinkling of volunteers have kept Democratic registrations even with Republican totals in targeted districts in central Orange County--the 71st and 72nd Assembly Districts and the 38th Congressional District.

Overall, “They (Republicans) are overwhelming us,” George Urch, executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County, conceded recently. “But we’re not going to roll over and die.”

‘Vote Mobile’

In addition to the parties’ registration drives, Secretary of State March Fong Eu has one of her own that includes an 800 phone number to request affidavits, 154 businesses handing out registration forms and a “vote mobile”--a van that registers voters around the state.

While Eu’s goal is to get Californians to the polls Nov. 4, both parties are motivated by the desire to win elections.

“You know elections can hinge on one or two votes,” said Republican volunteer Ed Royce Sr., who was helping his son’s state Senate campaign one recent Saturday by registering Republicans in Fullerton. “So this doesn’t just count for this race. This counts for the statewide candidates--for governor, for (Republican Senate candidate Ed) Zschau.”

Still, registering a Democrat or Republican doesn’t always mean a vote for that party. For one thing, said A. E. Olson, Orange County’s registrar of voters, “we’ve noticed where there’s a big registration drive, a lot of these new registrations don’t vote.”

And even when they do, party loyalty is not a given. “Sometimes the Democrats don’t always vote Democratic and the Republicans don’t always vote Republican,” Urch said.

Task Far From Exciting

In 1982, he said, Democrats mounted a strong registration drive in central Orange County, and that fall lost an Assembly seat and state Senate seat to the Republicans.

While party leaders think of registering voters as a noble cause, the work itself is far from exciting. But sometimes there are confrontations.

Gilchrist recalled one resident who not only declined to be registered but chased her down the sidewalk, spitting at her.

Royce, working his way through a senior-citizens complex recently, encountered a woman who slammed a door in his face.

“I wonder if you would like to help the President by registering Republican,” he had begun. The elderly woman cut him off.

“I’m a good old Democrat,” she snapped as she shut the door.

Royce had better luck at the next stop, where a woman in a housecoat listened, smiled and said she would like to register. Still, when Royce began to fill out a form that included her name, birthdate and the name of the party she wanted to list, she balked. “There are a lot of choices here,” the woman said. “I’ll take Peace and Freedom, I guess.”

Royce stopped writing. “Peace and Freedom?” he asked, a shocked look on his face.

He paused. He remained polite.

“How about Republican?” Royce asked.

“Oh,” she said. “That’s the one I was going to mention first.”

To a registration pro like Gilchrist, politeness is a central part of the game.

“Of course you’re polite to the Democrat,” she said. “Who knows? They may not register Republican, but they sure can vote for Republicans.”

Enrolling Voters for 26 Years

Gilchrist has directed the county’s Republican registration efforts for two years, but she has been registering voters for more than 26 years. Her husband has often helped, walking door to door with her and calling out the addresses of unregistered voters so she can walk up to the door and sign them up. And having children didn’t interfere with the work: Gilchrist just took them door to door in a stroller.

“The magic about Marcia Gilchrist is that year after year, campaign season after campaign season, she takes on the responsibility of getting done those horribly repetitious, volunteer-oriented precinct tasks,” said Orange County Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes. “Things like cutting out the maps that go into the folder, checking the names and addresses, making up literally hundreds of thousands of precinct-walking kits.

“And she does this all by herself. . . . If you cut away the flimflam and the razzmatazz of politics, it’s what she does that gets our Republican candidates elected.”

For Gilchrist, registration is never boring. She’s convinced that “one vote can make a difference. I’m convinced that you’ve got to get out there and vote. Because you can’t do anything when the election is over.”

Whether walking a precinct or not, Gilchrist stays personally involved in the process. She always keeps an extra form in her pocketbook, she said, in case she meets someone at the supermarket who isn’t registered.