APca 05/06 2001 Voting SACRAMENTO (AP) -- A GOP assemblyman brought in a county clerk from

APca 05/06 2001 Voting


   SACRAMENTO (AP) -- A GOP assemblyman brought in a county clerk
from   Oregon  and  a  state  representative  from  Wisconsin  on
Wednesday to bolster his opposition to  Democratic  proposals  to
allow voters to register on election day.

   "Election-day  registration  serves  only  to open the door to
corruption," said Assemblyman Richard Mountjoy, R-Arcadia.

   Mountjoy also said at a Capitol news conference that  he  will
seek  reconsideration  of  his  bill  to  purge a million or more
"deadwood" voters from the  rolls.    The  bill  drew  only  four
Republican  votes  last  week in the 10-member Assembly Elections
Committee, of which Mountjoy is vice chairman.

   Sue Profitt, county clerk of Wasco  County,  Ore.,  said  that
when  Oregon  changed  to  "open  registration" in 1975, election
offices were flooded on election day by  "procrastinators  and  a
lot of unfamiliar faces."

   "Offices  had  to  gear up with more staff at great expense to
the counties.  There was no time to verify anything," she said.

   In 1976, she said, California Gov.  Jerry  Brown  conducted  a
write-in campaign  for  president  in Oregon.  There were charges
that busloads of people came across the  border  into  Oregon  to
register and vote, perhaps several times, then quickly move on.

   In   1984   the   Bagwhan  Rajneesh  tried  to  use  the  open
registrations system, bussing in  4,000  "street  people"  in  an
effort to take over the Wasco County government.

   "It  boggles my mind to think of the damage that could be done
by any  group  of  people  in  the  heavily  populated  areas  of
California where neighbors never get acquainted with or recognize
each other," she said.

   Oregon   passed   an   initiative   last   November  repealing
election-day registration and establishing a 20-day deadline.

   John Merkt, a Republican Wisconsin state  representative  form
Milwaukee,  said  election day registration in that state has led
to massive confusion and voter fraud, has weakened the  two-party
system  by doing away with registration drives, and been an "open
invitation to voter fraud."

   California now has a 29-day period  between  the  registration
deadline and the election.

   Several  bills to allow election-day voting are pending in the
Assembly elections committee.

   
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