Assembly OKs Plan to Register Young Voters

Despite Republican arguments that it amounts to government coercion, legislation under which the state would pay San Fernando Valley high schools and community colleges to register students to vote won approval by the Assembly on Tuesday.

Under the bill, authored by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), the state would reimburse Valley schools for registering students who will be 18 by the next election. Schools would receive $1 for each voter registered.

Robbins said the bill, which creates a local pilot program that he would like to see expanded statewide, is simply an inexpensive way to encourage more young people to go to the polls. The bill still faces a vote in the Senate, probably today, before being sent to Gov. George Deukmejian.

“By having teachers pass out registration cards, it makes it easier to get them registered and . . . into the political process,” he said.

The secretary of state’s office has estimated that 7,000 Valley residents will turn 18 next year, a Robbins aide said. Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), who carried the bill in the Assembly, estimated that the pilot program would cost about $10,000. It would apply to three community colleges and about 20 high schools in the Valley.

But Republicans, stressing that they had no objections to registering more 18-year-olds, argued that public funds and employees should not be used to do it.

Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) said it would result in some students being “coerced into registering. . . . A lot of people don’t register to vote because they don’t want to.”

Ellenor Howell, a spokeswoman for the California Federation of Republican Women, said voter registration efforts should be carried out by volunteer organizations, not the state.

Robbins denied that students will be forced to sign up.

“All we’re doing is reimbursing schools for what they’re going to spend. They might spend money on pamphlets. They might have a school dance where the price of admission is registering to vote.”

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Robbins said state funds will be spent on the program “only technically.” He said his office will work with the secretary of state to raise money from private businesses and only those funds will be spent.

Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the West Valley, said she favored the idea.

But, she added: “We also must prepare them to vote. Getting people to vote when they don’t understand what they’re voting about doesn’t make much sense either.”

Although Republicans said they do not think that the bill will benefit Democrats more than Republicans, the Assembly vote was cast along party lines.

Times staff writer Sam Enriquez contributed to this report.