Motor Voter Law Could Add 50,000 to County Rolls : Government: General election costs are projected to increase by $100,000. Added registrants are expected to give Democrats a new majority.

A new federal voter registration law could add 50,000 people to Ventura County voter rolls and increase the costs of administering a general election by $100,000, the county’s election chief said Monday.

At the same time, newly registered voters signed up when residents renew drivers’ licenses or apply for food stamps are expected to erase the Republican Party’s registration advantage and give Democrats a majority of voters for the first time in nearly a decade.

The National Registration Act of 1993, better known as the motor voter bill, will allow citizens to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license or welfare or other public assistance.

The state Legislature will also designate at least two other agencies--such as libraries, public schools or fire departments--to register voters. The law is scheduled to go into effect by January 1, 1995.

“This will completely change how we process voter affidavits,” said Bruce Bradley, Ventura County’s assistant registrar of voters, who prepared a report on the law’s local impact for county administrators.

Democratic and Republican party leaders expect the historic change in registration procedure to dramatically favor Democrats.

As of early May, Republicans led Democrats among Ventura County’s 342,325 registered voters by a margin of 43.6% to 41.5%, or just over 7,000 voters. None of the minor parties, such as Libertarians, Greens and others, represents more than 2% of the county’s voters.

Hank Starr, chairman of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, predicted that the Democratic Party would be the choice of two-thirds of the newly registered voters.

“The two greatest disenfranchised groups have always been youth and minorities, and the Democratic Party has been the guardian of their interests,” Starr said. He said professional politicians would have a harder time overlooking the interests of the two groups if they show substantial gains in registration.

But Bob Larkin, chairman of the county’s Republican Central Committee, disputed that the law would have any real impact on elections. He said he remains confident that GOP voters will continue to turn out in higher numbers on election day, winning a significant number of races.

“The Democrats may increase their share of registered voters, but there’s no way they can make people go out and vote,” Larkin said. “Somebody who registered because it’s convenient will not be as likely to vote as someone who went to the effort of registering before.”

Richard D. Dean, Ventura County clerk and recorder, also downplayed the effects of the new registration law.

“It’s a political gambit by Democrats as a way to increase Democratic registration,” Dean said of the new law. “It’s not really a panacea for improving voter turnout.”

Dean said that voter turnout has continued to decline in seven of the 10 states that have adopted motor voter registration since 1972, and said the likeliest outcome would be a growth in the number of less-informed and less-active voters.

John Mott-Smith, an election specialist for the California secretary of state’s office, said that California, because of its size, will have a tougher time in implementing the new procedure than smaller states that have already done so.

Mott-Smith said the state will have to spend up to $3 million a year to administer the new system after start-up costs are paid off.

But the registrar of Yolo County estimated that initial costs could amount to $26 million the first year alone, said Bradley of the Ventura registrar’s office.

“This is another mandated service agencies have to provide that money is not provided for,” he said.

Bradley said the new law is expected to add about 15% new voters to the county’s registration rolls. The amount is expected to be lower for cities with high registration rates such as Thousand Oaks, and higher for cities such as Oxnard or Santa Paula where the percentage of registered voters is lower.

At an average cost of $1.81 to publish sample ballots, the 50,000 to 55,000 new voters would add $100,000 to the cost of a general election, he said. The county would also have to open an additional 68 polling places to accommodate the extra voters, something that would cost another $34,000 plus the cost of new equipment.

Regardless of the cost, Starr of the Democratic Party described the benefits as worth the price.

“If 100% of our population voted, we would have a better country,” Starr said. “It’s a small price for democracy.”