EASIER REGISTRATION WON'T BRING MORE VOTERS.

Byline: Bruce L. Bialosky

IT truly mystifies me that Proposition 52 is even on the ballot. As someone who has never missed voting in an election since my first opportunity in 1972, I have never found it that challenging to reregister.

It appears that the authors of this proposition are misguided and lack understanding of the election process.

Proposition 52, which would allow voters to register to vote the same day of the election, follows on the heels of two other bad pieces of legislation that should have taught the authors a lesson.

The first one was the ``Motor Voter'' law, which was adopted on a national basis, making it possible for people to register to vote when getting a driver's license. This law also made other changes that made it extremely difficult to take off the voter rolls any names that should not be there because of death, moving or other legitimate reasons.

Four years ago, I documented that in Los Angeles County 10 percent to 12 percent of the names on the voter rolls were not legitimate. This law has wreaked havoc on the integrity of elections, but never accomplished its goal of increasing voter turnout.

In fact, since its passage in the mid-1990s voter, turnout has continued to decline.

In California, Assemblyman Robert M. Hertzberg saw that the Motor Voter law was not improving turnout so he authored a state law that reduced the registration deadline from 30 days to 14 days prior to an election.

The net effect of this new law is that every expert has predicted the lowest turnout for a gubernatorial election in California history.

Yet, we still don't know the full effect of this change and how it will cause Election Day mishaps for county registrars and their mostly volunteer workers.

Now we have Proposition 52. It will allow someone to show up to the polls with two pieces of identification and vote. It supposes that the voter will be able to determine where the poll is located. If they have not been interested in voting to this point, how might they know where their polling place is located?

It supposes that the county registrars will be able to handle this new development.

Los Angeles County Registrar Conny McCormack recently said her office would make every effort to comply with the law, but expressed serious concern at being able to execute the logistics.

We do not fully comprehend the negative effects of these laws.

We know that the Motor Voter law has allowed for dead people voting because identification is not checked and the names are not removed.

We know that people can vote in more than one location because individuals who move cannot be automatically removed from the rolls unless you go through two election cycles or about four years.

Is our interest in encouraging people to vote so overriding that we don't care to have a modicum of integrity in our voter rolls?

Isn't it time that these individuals who think they are trying to invigorate our democracy sit back and analyze the root cause of the reduction in voter turnout?

Since the first two attempts failed, should you not look to other places for the cause?

There are a lot of reasons that lead to the reduction of voter turnout. Some might cite uninspiring candidates. Some might cite no differences between the major parties.

The main reason is clearly the lack of competitive elections. Over the past few redistricting cycles, our elected officials have made our Assembly, state Senate and congressional districts so one-sided that our vote does not matter in almost all cases.

In California, the only truly competitive congressional race is between Dick Monteith and Dennis Cardoza to replace Gary Condit in Modesto.

Nationally, it is generally accepted that at most 20 out of 435 congressional races are up for grabs.

In California, our Legislature cut a deal where the Assembly would end up with 50 Democrats and 30 Republicans and the state Senate with 26 Democrats and 14 Republicans.

Chances are your vote will not mean a thing in any of these races, no matter which party you represent.

These gerrymandered districts are also causing another problem. We are seeing a radicalizing of our elected officials. Both parties being assured of elections in their districts are sending forth less-compromising officials that add to the partisanship in our legislatures in California and nationally.

If you have only an effect on the gubernatorial race and you do not like the nominees, then why show up?

In my area, none of my Republican candidates would have a chance even if the Democrat was caught in front of a cathouse two days before the election.

Proposition 52 won't help to increase the integrity of our voter rolls, and it won't solve the problem it aims to.

Until we get redistricting out of the hands of our selnterested elected officials we will continue to see plummeting interest in our elections.

Let's focus on resolving the problem instead of passing a well-meaning ineffectual law.