ELECTION WATCH : Another Turn-Off

We should encourage people to vote, not try to scare them away from the polls.

A leader of the campaign for the odious Proposition 187, which would deny public benefits to illegal immigrants, has urged Orange County members of her organization to post signs near voting booths next Tuesday warning that “only citizens can vote.”

Of course only citizens can vote, and of course the sun rises in the east. What else is new? The purpose of the signs appears to be to intimidate voters, especially those who may have become citizens recently and thus are newly eligible to cast ballots. In Orange County, as well as all of California, that usually means Latinos and Asian Americans.

Six years ago, Orange County Republicans posted uniformed guards at some voting sites with signs in English and Spanish warning that non-citizens could not vote. The Republican Party wound up paying $400,000 in fines to settle lawsuits stemming from that incident. The Legislature subsequently made it a felony to interfere with a voter.

This time some Republicans are distancing themselves from any posting of signs, and the Orange County registrar of voters properly has warned that it is a violation of the law to post a political sign within 100 feet of a polling place or for anyone but a registrar’s representative to challenge a voter’s eligibility.

The vile campaign ads that have characterized too many races this year surely will sour some voters, prompting them to stay home on Election Day. A harangue over voter qualifications is another turn-off. Leave the signs home.