76-13-B8
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1977
| << Previous Broadcast | Next Broadcast >> |
Postcard Registration
TranscriptBefore you get too enthusiastic about schemes such as postcard registration which are intended to increase voter participation, let me tell you about the experience of a fellow I know. In fact, he's a research associate of mine and he takes his voting seriously. So seriously, that he goes to the polls even when there is nothing more than an obscure city charter revision to vote about. Well, several weeks ago, he moved to a city just east of Los Angeles. That city had already had the first round of its municipal elections. The final round would come up in mid-April. State law requires that you be in residence and registered thirty days prior to election day. He had moved in with six days to spare. So, he called a local fire station which he figured was about as close as any to his new address. They said, yes, they would be happy to register him any time of day or night. He has about a 30-minute commute from office to home, but it was longer that evening for that was one of the very few days this last winter when drought-afflicted Southern California had a first class rainstorm. He plowed through the rain and wound around the foothills till he finally found the fire station. The two firefighters on duty had two stacks of voter forms and debated over which ones to use. They resolved the matter by selecting the State's new postcard registration forms and filled out my friend's answers to their questions. He asked them if they would be turning in the form the next day and explained his concern about the deadline. One of the firemen, said, -- QUOTE -- "You bet, first thing in the morning. Even if we forgot, the elections people at the county clerk's office wouldn't let us overlook that deadline." -- UNQUOTE. With that, he tore off the bottom half of the voter card form and handed it to the newly registered voter as his receipt. The form said that if he didn't hear anything in thirty days to call a certain telephone number. Since nothing had come in the mail, he did call in thirty days. A Thursday. It was the county clerk's office he was calling. They had no record of his registration, but said they would keep looking and to call back Monday. Tuesday was election day. Meanwhile, he called the city clerk to learn where his polling place would be. Monday, he called the county clerk again. Despite the friendliness of the lady on the other end of the line, she could be of little help. She had searched and still no record of his name. She suggested calling the city clerk who could look it up in the actual voter lists that would be posted at the polling place. He did. Again, another helpful voice and much searching, but his name was nowhere to be found. By now it was late Monday afternoon. The city clerk suggested as a last chance that he call the county registrar of voters who keeps all of Los Angeles County's nearly two million voters recorded on microfilm. He called. Another friendly voice. The woman said it would take a few minutes, but she would be happy to call him back. She did, in about ten minutes. She was very sorry, but his name simply wasn't on the county's microfilm records. She said, -- QUOTE --"If you could just give me the serial number of your receipt, I might be able to look further." -- UNQUOTE. But he didn't have a receipt. You see, the so-called receipt from the streamlined easy-to-use new postcard registration form he got at the fire station isn't like the old fashioned forms which have serial numbers on every page for easy tracing. No, the new easy-registration form has none at all. Scratch one voter on that election day. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
Details
| |||||||||||
Added Notes |
