DRIVERS CAN STAY IN CARS, SIGN TO VOTE REGISTRATION AT WINDOW TO BE OFFERED TO MIDNIGHT.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

County election officials say they are going mad in their attempts to help people register to vote by the Feb. 7 deadline.

The upcoming March 7 presidential primary election will include 20 state ballot measures on issues ranging from Indian gaming to the definition of marriage to repeal of the 50-cents-a-pack cigarette tax. Those too busy to get out of their car to register can drive to the Hollywood Bowl for a Midnight Madness session of drive-up registration from 4 p.m. to midnight, according to County Clerk Conny McCormack.

``This is the first time in Los Angeles that people can drive up in their car, register and keeping going,'' McCormack said Thursday.

Also, would-be voters can pick up registration forms along with their lunch at Rubio's Baja Grill restaurants throughout the city, including restaurants at 17200 Ventura Blvd. in Encino and 19500 Plummer St., Northridge.

Rubio's spokesman Marc Figueroa said the restaurant chain has helped add more than 11,000 new voters to the state's rolls.

Voter registration forms are also available throughout the county at about 1,300 government locations, including libraries, fire stations, post offices and city clerk offices. Residents can call the county election information number at [phone] from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays to obtain information on locations near them to pick up registration-by-mail forms.

Those wishing to vote by absentee ballot first must register and then can either use the form provided in the sample ballot or call a section of McCormack's office at [phone] to obtain an absentee ballot. Election officials will take requests Feb. 7 through Feb. 29 for absentee ballots.

The number of voters who have registered in the county reached an all- time high late last year at 4,034,844, but earlier this month the county purged 300,362 names from the list - as part of the periodic removal of names of those who apparently have moved or died - leaving 3,734,482 registered voters.

``We think we'll get back up to 3.9 (million) or 4 million because the presidential primaries typically have the highest voter turnout,'' McCormack said.

Asking for responses, election officials sent 342,966 postcards to all who had not voted or made a change to their voter registration records in four or more years. They got responses from only 23,300 who said they want to remain active voters at their registered addresses and 19,304 who supplied information to update their records.

Election officials say the purge will save the county about $250,000 in printing and mailing costs for sample ballots in upcoming elections.

While sample ballots will not be mailed to the 300,362, their names will appear on separate inactive-voters lists at polling places for the 2000 elections.

If any of these newly inactivated voters appear at their neighborhood polling places for the primary or the general election, they will be reinstated as active voters and allowed to cast a ballot, McCormack said.