ILLINOIS OFFICIALS ASSAIL HASSLES OF MOTOR-VOTER LAW

Long lines greet customers when they renew their driver's licenses at offices around Illinois, officials with the Illinois secretary of state's office say.

That is because the new National Voter Registration Act, mandated by a federal court order earlier this month, results in extra paperwork for personnel at licensing offices.

Officials say bugs must be worked out, particularly in lines of communication between the secretary of state's office, which handles driver's license renewals, and the state elections office.

Dave Urbanek in Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan's office said computer systems must be updated, forms printed and procedures implemented to smoothly carry out the law's requirements.

"If we had our choice, this would not have been implemented," said Urbanek. "We've had to adapt our system, and until we get up to speed the motor-voter cards are being filled out by hand."

Illinois has had a motor-voter law similar to the federal law for five years. The state law, however, didn't require employees at driver's license offices to ask people if they wanted to register to vote, although customers had the option of registering.

Urbanek said the federal law isn't bad, but employees don't like the added paperwork associated with having to ask if each customer wants to register to vote.

In the first two weeks of the federal-court's mandate, Illinois registered about 10 percent of the people who renewed their driver's license, or 7,766 voters.

In sharp contrast, Missouri has taken a more aggressive approach to implementing the federal motor-voter law by expanding on the federal mandate. In addition to adhering to the law by asking people renewing their driver's licenses if they want to register, Missouri tries to register voters at employment and state welfare offices. But the majority of new voters -- about 85 percent -- register at the fee offices when driver's licenses are renewed.

More than 125,000 people have registered to vote in Missouri since the law was enacted Jan. 1, said Jim Grebing in Missouri Secretary of State Bekki Cook's office.

"Two million people were registered in the first quarter of 1995," Grebing said of voter registrations nationally. "They think that by the 1996 general election 20 million voters will be registered."

Missouri also has its problems because the secretary of state's office handles elections while driver's license renewals are handled by Missouri Department of Revenue fee offices.

"That's part of the frustration," Grebing said. "But we had to start carrying the law out. We're hopeful that things are being eased a little bit with time."

Grebing said instructional materials on the law, including videotapes, are sent to Missouri elections officials. The secretary of state's office also hopes for a centralized computer system to monitor voter registration duplicity and fraud.

Grebing said that at the end of March 900,000 Missourians were old enough to vote but weren't registered.

"It's important to get these people registered, and hopefully they will vote," he said.