House OKs Bill Simplifying Voter Registration; Veto Seems Certain

The House, setting up another election-year confrontation with President Bush, approved legislation Tuesday that would simplify voter registration laws by permitting people to register by mail or as they apply for a driver’s license.

Democrats overrode angry Republican protests to pass the so-called “motor voter” bill, 268 to 153, in nearly a straight party-line vote.

Barring a last-minute change of heart at the White House, the measure is almost certain to be vetoed. And neither the House nor the Senate (which last month approved the measure, 61 to 38) passed it by the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Bush’s veto.

Backers said the sweeping revision, dubbed the “motor voter” bill because it would automatically register qualified voters when they apply for driver’s licenses, would enroll up to 90% of the estimated 70 million Americans who are eligible to vote but are not registered.

It also would seek to encourage voting by the poor, the elderly and the disabled, by requiring states to offer registration by mail and at welfare, unemployment and other government offices, starting in 1994.

Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.) said the changes were needed “at a time when millions of Americans are alienated from our political system. . . . “

Republicans charged that such changes could open the way to widespread election fraud.

They also complained that the bill would violate states’ rights and impose costly federal mandates. They said it amounted to little more than a partisan ploy to creating another election-year issue for Democrats to use against Bush.

Proponents shot back that the Republicans’ real concern was that the changes would benefit the Democrats by encouraging two traditional bases of Democratic support, the poor and the elderly, to vote.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) held up a new letter from the White House affirming Bush’s veto warning and accused Democrats of crafting a partisan “sham.” He said: “A veto is what you are going to get, and a veto is what you deserve.”