DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130021

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

LOW VOTER TURNOUT MINORITY RULE CAN 20 PERCENT OF AVAILABLE VOTES BE CALLED A MANDATE?

Legislators in both parties are searching for a responsible - or at least quick - way to abolish the property tax on cars and trucks in the wake of last week's election.

But that major policy shift, presumably dictated by the victory of ``No Car Tax'' Gilmore, will be based on abysmally low turnout. The percentage of registered voters casting ballots was the least in a gubernatorial election since Virginia became a competitive two-party state in the 1970s.

In fact, political buffs would have to go all the way back to 1965, in the waning days of the old Byrd Organization, to find a worse figure than the 48.2 percent of registered voters who went to the polls last Tuesday.

Perhaps a widespread sense that Gilmore's election was a foregone conclusion contributed to the low turnout. Perhaps a torrent of negative assaults and uninspired rhetoric failed to excite Virginians.

The most benign explanation is that motor-voter laws drove registration to an all-time high, thereby reducing the turnout percentage when many of those newly registered folk didn't bother to vote.

But motor-voter didn't affect the fact that actual turnout was lower than in the past two gubernatorial elections. Nor does it mitigate the fact that only 34 percent of eligible adult Virginians - registered or unregistered - cast a ballot.

Lop off the 43 percent of those who voted for Don Beyer, and you suddenly have no more than one in five adult Virginians clamoring for a car-tax cut.

Some mandate. From close up, the only thing that can be said for sure is that car-tax policy is being drafted to serve the will of a vocal minority.

So long as Virginians ignore the ballot box (i.e., the single part of the political process where almost every adult has a chance to influence policy), the state will be ruled by the desires of a minority.

The fact that the number of citizens choosing to vote is getting smaller and smaller is a sad commentary on the quality of public life in Virginia. Reversing those numbers should be the top priority of the major political parties. A commitment by candidates to promoting positive ideas, rather than tearing down an opponent, would be a helpful start.

It may be in the interest of political consultants to diminish voter turnout. But it is not a useful development for anyone else. Elected officials setting public policy deserve to know what a broad spectrum of the public wants. So long as most people stay home on Election Day, they have lost their most effective gauge.

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