ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611110012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BRIEFLY PUT
* SO, IT has been suggested, turnout of about 2.4 million Virginia voters on Nov. 5, down from about 2.5 million in the 1992 presidential election, has vindicated critics of the national motor-voter law.
These are the critics who had predicted that motor-voter, which helped swell state voter rolls by about 260,000, would not produce increased participation in elections.
Lessee now: How to figure this vindication for motor-voter's critics?
They can't very well concede that motor-voter brought in any new actual voters, because that would have increased participation over what it otherwise would have been, irrespective of the percentage of (increased numbers of) eligible voters who actually voted.
So maybe the 260,000 Virginians who registered under motor-voter's easier registering rules did so precisely for the purpose of not participating in the Nov. 5 election.
Alternatively, if some of these newly registered voters did vote, then an equal number of registered Virginians who had not registered under motor-voter must have decided not to participate this year precisely because 260,000 individuals had registered under motor-voter.
Yeah, that must be it. It can't be that reasons other than motor-voter are to blame for shrinking turnout.
* MASSACHUSETTS has opened its doctors' files to patients, revealing to them for the first time anywhere in the nation malpractice awards, disciplinary actions and criminal history.
Such information, while far from giving a complete picture of a doctor's ability, should be helpful in a marketplace-driven health-care system in which "customers" are expected to weigh costs against quality. This is a start toward establishing some measure of quality, and should become standard practice.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB