PUBLIC FORUM : WEEKEND VOTING PROPOSAL RECEIVES MIXED REVIEWS.

Will weekend voting increase voter turnout? Or, will it simply prove a theory many people believe - that the cause of low turnouts is lack of interest, knowledge or concern.

I am a full-time college student with a job that requires up to 30 hours per week. Time management is essential. If municipal elections were held on weekends instead of weekdays, I would have a better chance of getting to the polls, as would other college students in this situation.

A typical day involves rushing from class to class, class to work, then work to home to study, leaving little time for anything else. Since many students are in this predicament and account for a large portion of the nonvoting electorate, any accommodations to increase election participation should be promoted.

Young people are constantly berated for not taking responsibility for the future and for neglecting their civic duty to vote. A measure such as this one may open doors for students who feel they do not have time to keep up with political affairs and elections.

Most young adults can find a spare 30 minutes in their weekend to go down to their polling place. It may be a different story during the week, when other demands seem more pressing.

It is true that many young people feel their vote will not make a difference and their voice will not be heard, thus they choose not to vote. This category of nonvoters will need a different incentive to participate. However, weekend voting would encourage a bigger turnout from those students who keep abreast of issues, yet have very restrictive schedules.

- Jennifer Hoffman

Chatsworth

Weekend voting is another leftist effort to ensure a win at the polls. These gimmicks, coupled with district gerrymandering and heavy union involvement, have just about tied up the election system to ensure that no one, other than socialist Democrats, will assume political office.

If high voter turnout is the goal and you want to live in such a country, I suggest you go to Russia. In a free country, you do not have to vote if you do not want to vote. Period.

The usual propaganda we hear, ``I don't care how you vote, just as long as you vote,'' is nonsense. Wisdom does not agree with that philosophy. Freedom will not survive if we have to force people to the polls or bribe them to the polls. These slugs should be left by the wayside and not be an object of political party concern.

It appears to me that the more we coddle the electorate, the more socialist our system becomes. People who are drawn into the voting booths by bribes, freebies, transportation, fraud and other devices of deceit are those who, by and large, have their hand out for government largess - something for nothing.

The stratagems of the left, such as weekend voting, are not conducive to freedom and should not be considered nor implemented.

- Robert D. Sharp

Arleta

To change election day from a Tuesday to a weekend would be the very worst thing that could ever happen to America, a nation founded on religious principles by godly men.

Saturday and Sunday are holy days of worship for many religions.

If these religious voters stay away from the polls because voting takes place on their day of worship, then guess who will be voting and winning on the weekend election?

- Elliott Graham

Glendale

Re City Councilman Mike Feuer's proposal to have the city vote on a weekend, Saturday and Sunday:

Get real. We make it so easy to vote, and if the voters are apathetic, it is because most of our elected officials are only pushing their personal agendas and spending our hard-earned money.

Rather than spending so much money at the polling places, why not have everyone vote absentee ballots?

I am a senior citizen born in Los Angeles, as was my late husband. We always told our five children to vote, even if their vote did not agree with our conservative philosophy.

- Betty G. Franz

Tarzana

Special interests in control

Regardless of what rationale is offered for voter turnout, the fact remains that control of our nation's government continues to be in the hands of special-interest groups.

Not voting merely gives an open field to those who have much to gain or lose in the legislative process. If those who vote happen to represent the general public, low turnout wouldn't matter all that much. But we saw what happened in 1994 when many Democrats were voted out of office for favoring a ban on assault rifles, a waiting period for buying handguns and a small tax adjustment for those who earn over $100,000 a year.

- Fred W. Coble 

North Hills

L.A. leaf-blower ban

As a senior citizen who suffers from chronic sciatica and has required hand eight surgeries in the past nine years or so, I consider my lightweight gas-powered leaf blower a godsend. In just minutes I can herd all the fallen leaves into a central spot, where I can then pick them up and place them in the city-supplied barrel for pickup; no backbreaking labor to speak of.

I see others in the area wasting uncounted gallons of water to wash down driveways, sidewalks, parkways and gutters. Not only is this illegal, it is inconsiderate to downhill neighbors.

Anyone who has anything equal to chronic sciatica knows that pushing a broom or using a rake over more than a few minutes can bring on hellish pain. And hand surgery does not always alleviate painful conditions 100 percent.

Being on a fixed income, I really can't justify paying someone to rake my property.

I dread the day that the idiots who sit on the City Council decide I can no longer use my gas-powered grass mower.

I'd offer to get a cow to keep the grass cropped, but they give off dangerous emissions.

How fortunate for Councilman Marvin Braude. He has found his niche in life, collecting an inflated paycheck while sitting in his ivory tower far above us little people who must get by as best we can.

I suggest that he use a leaf blower to clear his thinking and a rake on the cobwebs in his cranium.

- Anita Work

Sylmar

Were the expoundings in your ``Stirring up dust'' editorial Nov. 15 meant to imply that people, homebound for whatever reason, must tolerate gas leaf-blower usage?

If so, I say not, and cite the following reasons:

Three Rambo-type gardeners weekly serve six of my not-at-home neighbors, and while it is annoying to hear greenery cut for three hours, I can accept the noise until their gas leaf blowers become active.

At that time, these high-powered boy toys spew dust devils from their front ends and expel gas fumes from their rear ends, and the discharge from both ends seeps into my abode through air cracks.

Then, too, aside from the mentioned health hazards, these devices blast debris onto my outside property, and the mess is always left by the paid gardeners for the unpaid me to clean up.

Am I an elitist - Councilwoman Rita Walters' word for wanting gas leaf blowers banned? No. Defenseless? Yes.

Most gardeners make a good living, but due to being uncontrolled, they have no regard for those at their mercy.

- Marilyn Rager

Granada Hills

The City Council is shooting in the dark with an ordinance to ban all gas-powered leaf blowers. Leaf blowers are not the problem; it is the noise. What they should do is determine how much noise is acceptable, say 50 decibels at 50 feet or whatever.

There is a municipal noise ordinance now. Why write another one. Fix the one we have. Fine offenders $25, not $1,000. Enforcers would not hesitate to write tickets for $25, but $1,000 - they would think twice.

- William H. Link

Northridge

Re ``L.A. council cracking down; ban backed on gasoline leaf blowers,'' Daily News, Nov. 20:

What kind of hypocrisy is the council dealing in?

We homeowners can't use our leaf blowers because of their gasoline emissions, yet apparently the city's same leaf blowers pose no problems for our air quality.

- Betty Crockett

Northridge

I personally think that Los Angeles City Council members have too much time on their hands when it comes to this leaf-blower ban.

First, it was saving water by not hosing your driveway; now it is saving our ears.

First of all, most people are at work in an industrial complex and don't hear their yard being mowed and blown. If the City Council is so bent on eliminating pollution and having our Police Department enforce this farce of a measure, it should also be citing Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses and Los Angeles Unified School District buses.

Most people who use leaf blowers use them at full speed, which just blows everything everywhere. Use a rake and clean up debris afterward. I myself will continue to use my leaf blower at half capacity and risk the fine or use water and risk the City Council going into a tizzy about water shortages and depleting our resources.

I have the right to use the garden equipment I purchased. Just remember, City Council members: You were voted in and you can be voted out.

Re the Los Angeles proposal to ban gas-driven leaf blowers because they are too noisy and the fear of a negative impact on gardeners and home owners:

Might I offer a solution to the problem? Let the council ban the blowers. Gardeners who use them should simply march right on down to Van Nuys Airport to patronize one of the friendly jet aircraft companies and buy themselves a new or used jet aircraft engine.

An old Stage-2 model will do nicely. Just mount the engine on a suitable pushcart with the exhaust end forward.

While the noise levels from these engines are deafening even at distances up to a mile away, the city, the FAA and the Environmental Protection Agency all tell me that the noise generated by these machines is well within tolerable levels, and jet engines are exempt from noise ordinances. So, not only will you be in compliance with the noise laws, you'll be helping the Airport Department in its quest to prove to the local residents that not everybody thinks these engines are deafening and painful to the ear.

And just think how much more efficiently a jet engine will disperse those nasty leaves.

- Ray Ferry

North Hills