Dead in The Driveway?

Less than a week after George Bush stopped briefly in Panama to herald "the rising tide of democracy across the Americas," the House of Representatives approved a plan sponsored by Democrats to simplify voter registration across the nation -- just in time for the fall election. The so-called motor-voter bill would require states to make it possible to register by mail, at a variety of public buildings and bureaus, and when applying for a driver's permit. But the 268-to-153 vote fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override an all but certain presidential veto. "Motor-voter," said top White House lobbyist Nick Calio, "is dead in the driveway."

Bush says he opposes the measure, which would supersede a patchwork of similar laws already on the books in 30 states, because he believes its looser registration requirements would lead to voter fraud. Less advertised but no less important is the White House's reluctance to boost voter turnout in a year when outsider Ross Perot has scrambled the Electoral College math and the throw-the-bums-out mood has reached epidemic proportion.

Just how much of Perot's support might come from new voters? Not even Bush's top advisers know for sure. For now, they say, Perot is drawing votes almost exclusively from the ranks of disaffected, but largely registered, Democrats and Republicans -- not the disenfranchised. But that could change, and if it does, the White House isn't keen to make registration simpler.

Democrats charged that Bush's opposition to the House bill and a similar Senate version stems from fears that more new Democrats will register than new Republicans, and pointed with indignant alarm to statistics showing that only 36% of the adult population voted in 1990 elections -- a situation that may have as much to do with disillusionment with endless Washington politicking as with obstacles to registration.