‘Motor Voter’ Gets Raves for Registrations but Has No ‘Legs’ at Polls

Millions of Southern California residents have used the so-called motor voter registration program since it was instituted more than two years ago.

Tuesday’s election will provide an opportunity to fulfill the plan’s goal--voting.

“The number of people who have registered and otherwise would not have done so is impressive,” said Conny McCormack, Los Angeles County’s registrar-recorder. “But voter turnout continues to go down.”

The motor voter program, officially known as the National Voter Registration Act, was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993 and took effect in January 1995.

However, California’s Pete Wilson and six other governors challenged the law in court.

Wilson argued, among other things, that it was an unfunded federal mandate that would cost the state’s taxpayers $35 million a year.

California was forced to begin implementing the law in June 1995, and the Supreme Court rejected the state’s final challenge to the statute the next January.

The program has been a big hit in Los Angeles County, which on a monthly basis produces about a quarter of the motor voter registrations in the state.

The program allows residents to register, re-register or notify the county clerk of a change of address by checking a box and providing information on Department of Motor Vehicles forms.

Despite its nickname, the program also provides for the collection of voter information on welfare and armed forces forms, and on forms used by state-funded agencies serving the disabled.

In August alone, 23,324 people in Los Angeles County took advantage of the motor voter program. The same month, 121,023 used the system in the rest of California.

Some minor problems have arisen in the process, McCormack said.

Her office has received numerous calls from people who applied for driver’s licenses and thought they had registered to vote simply by checking a box. When voter information did not arrive at their homes, they realized they were not registered.

The misunderstandings occurred, McCormack said, because the DMV application does not state clearly that in addition to checking the box, a registration form at the bottom of the document must be filled out.

She said her office is working with DMV officials to produce a more understandable form.

“There have been some minor problems, but the overall program is working fine,” she said.

Also, according to DMV records, the program has cost only $3.8 million a year, a substantially smaller figure than Wilson used.

But registering potential voters is one thing, and improving voter turnout is another.

While registration in the county shot through the roof just before the 1996 presidential election, increasing by about 200,000, voter turnout continued to fall.

In that election, only 64.9% of those registered cast ballots, the worst presidential election percentage in the county’s history.

By comparison, for the 1992 presidential election--before the motor voter program started--75.61% of registered voters in the county went to the polls.

On Tuesday, turnout will probably again be low, McCormack said, especially because no major state or federal posts are up for grabs.

“Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of excitement,” said Richard Willis, head of the precincts section of the county registrar-recorder’s office.

“We can lead people to the water,” McCormack said, “but whether there’s any interest in voting, that’s anybody’s guess.”