‘Motor Voter’ Implementation

Gov. Pete Wilson has once again demonstrated his affinity for placing partisan politics above the public good by filing a frivolous lawsuit seeking to halt implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, known as “motor voter” (Dec. 21).

Motor voter was passed by Congress and signed into law as a way to increase voter participation. It permits voter registration at offices where people most often have direct contact with government, i.e., the Department of Motor Vehicles, offices that provide public assistance, state-funded offices that serve disabled persons and other such places. The goal was quite simply to make voter registration easy and accessible.

Wilson says he is challenging motor voter because it is an unfunded federal mandate. Hogwash. Saving a little money is no reason to sabotage the most important voter law of the last 30 years.

Wilson has vetoed bills designed to not only implement motor voter, but to also institute voter outreach programs for students and expand permanent absentee voter status to the elderly. Unbelievably, with a single swipe of his veto pen, Wilson killed legislation which would have provided audiotape versions of the ballot pamphlet for the blind, and made it easier for firefighters and other emergency personnel to vote during natural disasters.

Wilson’s lawsuit was predictable. He is a politician who selfishly views any voter-outreach effort as a threat to himself and his party. The United States and California in particular have some of the lowest rates of voter participation in the world. A democracy can function properly only when most or all of its citizens are actively participating. Absent that, we are left with a tiny, unrepresentative segment of the population making decisions for all of us and democracy becomes merely an illusion.

RICHARD G. POLANCO

Chairman, State Senate Elections

and Reapportionment Committee

D-Los Angeles

* Re “Since When Can Wilson Defy the Law?” Column Left, Jan. 10:

I fail to see the “unnecessary obstacles” to voter registration which Mark Rosenbaum and Karl Manheim claim exist in this country, which the motor-voter law would seek to eliminate. I personally moved five times within the Los Angeles vicinity and had no problems whatsoever re-registering to vote at each new location. All I had to do was acquire a registration form from my new precinct office, fill it out and send it in, as easily as with a magazine subscription. I really wanted to participate in the political process, so I took the initiative to register.

While I totally agree with the concept of every citizen being eligible to vote, if some do not wish to exert the very minimal effort to register, leave them unregistered. Uninterested voters are highly likely to be uninformed voters. Uninformed voting in large numbers could conceivably cause problems, though unintentionally.

MIKE PAKUCKO

Santa Clarita