Campaigns to Register Voters Near Deadline

The Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley reports that it has registered 8,500 voters since January.

Republicans have been running a registration drive in the Valley as well but they are not willing to discuss the results, said John Kurzweil, communications director for the state GOP.

And nonpartisan efforts have included a monthlong statewide campaign by the secretary of state and various businesses, labor unions and others that have placed registration forms in fast-food restaurants, hotels and insurance companies.

If you want to vote Nov. 8, the ballot box countdown is on.

Tuesday is the deadline for completing a voter registration form in California and it must be received by the county registrar or secretary of state’s office by Friday. The deadline for absentee ballots is Nov. 1.

Registration applications are available at post offices, county buildings, fire stations and libraries as well as at fast-food restaurants, real estate offices and other businesses. Those seeking to register in person can call the county registrar’s hot line, (800) 325-0918, to find the nearest location.

Record Registration

Los Angeles County registration is at an all-time high of 3.67 million, said Marcia Ventura, spokeswoman for the county registrar-recorder. This includes 2 million Democrats and 1.27 million Republicans. The remainder are registered with minor parties or did not state an affiliation.

“It is very, very easy to register in the state of California,” said Ventura, who noted there are 3,700 locations in Los Angeles County where applications are available.

The Democrats, buoyed by their first realistic chance at the presidency in eight years, appear to have been more active than Republicans in the Valley race to register.

“We’ve done remarkably better than we have ever done before,” said Bud Knutsen, chairman of the Democratic Party in the Valley. “We had a lot more people out this time. Also, there’s a heightened interest in the election this year.”

Democratic officeholders support this volunteer effort by making a financial contribution to the party for every new Democratic registrant in their district. This can range from 50 cents to a few dollars for each registration.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) said that a dozen paid registrars working for his reelection campaign have signed up 2,000 Democrats in his northeast Valley district in the past month alone.

Katz, who represents one of the few potentially competitive districts in the Valley, has used his ample campaign coffers to run a rigorous voter registration program since 1984 when he was ambushed by an aggressive GOP registration drive.

Republican Jim D. Rendleman, a Granada Hills attorney who is opposing Katz, said he has focused on recruiting hundreds of volunteers to get out the vote on election day rather than trying to match Katz’s registration efforts.

“We have not made it a registration campaign,” Rendleman said. “It’s an organization campaign.”

GOP Withholds Data

Shirley Whitney, chairman of the 43rd Assembly District Republican Committee, said the Canoga Park Republican Women’s Club has been conducting voter registration efforts in the West Valley. But the GOP isn’t giving out any figures just yet.

“We’re not ready to talk in detail about our activities on voter registration,” state party spokesman Kurzweil said last week. “We have large-scale efforts statewide to identify our voters and get them to the polls and make sure that as many of them as possible are registered.”

One group that was highly visible in registering Valley voters in the spring but has trailed off this fall is the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition. The organization’s volunteers registered 1,500 Democratic voters--primarily in the heavily black and Latino areas of Pacoima and San Fernando--before the June 7 primary, said Richard Jacquec, chairman of the coalition’s Valley chapter. Since Jackson’s defeat in the presidential primary, however, it has registered only 100.