From: PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu (David Veal)
Subject: Re: Motor-Voter
Lines: 54
Organization: University of Tennessee Division of Continuing Education

In article <1r7tjnINNgcu@bigbird.williams.edu> 96csw@williams.edu (Walter "Gib" Gibson) writes:
[Motor-Voter stuff]
>
>	My friend, after the election, brought up the point that it
>would enable more people to vote, however, since it makes it easier to
>get to the place of registration.  He brought up the analogy that if
>there were only ONE place to vote, say, in Alaska- would it be
>excessive and wasteful to petition to have more places to vote?  This
>is a similar idea- a way to encourage more people to vote by making it
>more easily accessible.  I, not knowing where I stood, played devil's
>advocate and said - well, would you have the taxpayer's money go to
>busing for those people that have trouble making it to DMV, then?
>Where does the right to vote merge with the right to vote easily?
>Where should we draw the lines?  

       Well, there does have to be a line.  And to be honest, extending
voter registration to DMVs is hardly analogous to having only one
place for registration in Alaska and opening a new one in Atlanta.  More is 
not always better once you've passed a certain point.

>	My friend said that that is obviously an extreme and that
>actually the motor-voter bill would SAVE money because no longer would
>the city have to pay someone to sit in the town hall and spend all
>his/her time filing those things- they'd just be at the push of a
>button or the filling out of an X at DMV.  So I (actually someone
>else, but there's no need to confuse this anymore) countered again
>saying that wouldn't congress, *as always*, get exorbitent budgets and
>fund committees to orchestrate and oversee the implementation.... the
>argument went back and forth forever- ranging from whether or not it's
>BETTER to have more people voting, whether that is even relevant,
>etc....
>
>	just looking for some more opinions.  Anybody got 'em???

       I thought the Motor Voter bill passed.

       In any case, my experiance with Tennessee's voter registration
system (which you can register with by mail, by the way) is that nobody
who is interested in voting is being denied access to registration.
All it requires is just the tiniest bit of interest on the registrant's
part and thinking about the election once in the eleven months prior to
it.  (Once you register it's good unless you miss for years worth of
elections of move.)

       It's easy to register now.  I simply don't see the value in going
out and trying to get people registered who don't have enough gumption to
even write and have the proper forms sent to them.   How can we expect
responsible decisions out of these people?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Veal Univ. of Tenn. Div. of Cont. Education Info. Services Group
PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu - "I still remember the way you laughed, the day
your pushed me down the elevator shaft;  I'm beginning to think you don't
love me anymore." - "Weird Al"
