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In 29% of the communites where deputy registrars were allowed, election officials failed to use this method to reach citizens. While only 10 states⁵ expressly forbid evening and Saturday registration, 77% of the communities studied had no Saturday registration, and 75% had no evening registration in non-election months.⁴ Even during the heat of an election period, i.e. the 30 days prior to the closing of registration, 38% of the communites provided no additional hours for registration. The data clearly suggest, then, that local officials have in many cases failed to use the tools allowed but not mandated by law to make registration and voting easier and more accessible for all citizens.

In addition to their influence in areas where the law is stated in broad or permissive terms local officials are able to influence the electoral process in matters where the law is silent. Although the law may neither

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require, suggest nor forbid it, an election official might provide information to citizens concerning the election, might conduct extensive training programs for all poll workers, and might provide bilingual clerks where needed. While such initiative would remove many obstacles to voting, local officials have seldom noted in these areas: only 11% of the local officials included in this study published a voter information guide: 28% provided no training for poll workers: and in approximately 30% of the registration places where bilingual assistance was needed, local officials failed to proved this service. Election officials clearly have the power to make registration and voting procedures easier for citizens but this study has found that, by and large, they don't use it.

To a large extent, local officials retain their discretionary powers by default. The community study found that the state authority

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charged with responsibilty for administering the state election code most often counted it as one of several other major functions of his or her office. In most states reports from local officials to the state authority are generally required just after elections and contain little else than the total number of people registered and voting in a given jurisdiction and the results of the latest election. Though many states issue guidelines to local election officials, few state administrative mechanisms have been set up to monitor or enforce compliance with the guidelines. In short, state election administrators have little knowledge or control and exert practically no leadership over local election officials and the manner in which they administer the state election code. It is little wonder then that the local election official can, and often does, become the chief policy-maker for all local, state and national elections held within his jurisdiction.

TABLE A. - DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH COMMUNITIES ACCORDING TO POPULATION SIZE BY ADDITIONAL TIME AVAILABLE FOR REGISTRATION DURING AN ELECTION MONTH (MONTH PRIOR TO CLOSING OF REGISTRATION)

	Total		Additional hours			Additional			Additional			Additional
	communities		election month			Saturdays1			evenings1			evening hours2
	Number	Percent	Percent	Yes	No	Percent	Yes	No	Percent	Yes	No	Percent	[less] 10 hrs.	[more] 10 hrs.
Population size	N = 200	100	100	62	38	100	70	30	100	83	17	100	52	49
Greatest than 1,000,000	4	2	100	3(1)	(3)	100	(4)	--	100	(2)	(2)	100	(4)	--
500,000 to 1,000,000	13	6	100	62	38	100	63	37	100	89	11	100	57	42
250,000 to 500,000	21	10	100	41	59	100	75	25	100	77	23	100		100
100,000 to 250,000	33	16	100	68	32	100	90	10	100	70	30	100	36	64
50,000 to 100,000	27	13	100	73	27	100	55	45	100	86	14	100	44	57
25,000 to 50,000	42	20	100	65	34	100	75	25	100	90	10	100	56	44
10,000 to 25,000	46	22	100	60	40	100	67	33	100	93	7	100	61	39
Less than 10,000	22	11	100	56	44	100	45	56	100	60	40	100	83	17

¹ Refers only to those places reporting some additional hours of registration during an election ³ Refers to actual number rather than percentages.
³ Refers only to those places reporting some additional evening hours of registration during an election month.

TABLE B - DISTRIBUTION OF POLLING PLACES OBSERVED ACCORDING TO TYPE BY USE OF VOTING MACHINES, FREQUENCY OF MACHINE BREAKDOWNS AND DURATION OF BREAKDOWNS

	Polling places observed		Voting	machines	used	Voting machine break downs, at least one reported	Minutes	out	of	order
Variable	Number	Percent	Percent	Yes	No	(percent)	Percent	Less than 30 minutes	30 minutes to 2 hours	More than 2 hours
Type of polling place	N=484	100	100	74	32	12	100	71	24	5
Ethnic white - Under $5,000	37	8	100	70	31	8	100	67	33	--
Ethnic white - $5,000-$10,000	60	12	100	67	34	5	100	80	--	20
Ethnic white - over $10,000	47	10	100	62	39	6	100	100	--	--
Nonethnic white - Under $5,000	57	12	100	68	33	5	100	83	17	--
Nonethnic white - $5,000 -$10,000	67	14	100	69	30	16	100	85	15	--
Nonethnic white - Over $10,000	70	14	100	71	29	20	100	46	15	8
Spanish speaking - Under $5,000	22	5	100	56	34	18	100	100	--	--
Spanish speaking - $5,000 - $10,000	15	3	100	79	21	13	100	50	50	--
Spanish speaking - Over $10,000	3	1	100	1(3)	--	1(3)	100	1(3)	--	--
Black - under $5,000	51	11	100	82	18	14	100	20	60	20
Black - $5,000-$10,000	43	9	100	87	13	12	100	33	67	--
Black - Over $10,000	13	3	100	50	50	23	100	100	--	--

¹ Refers to actual number rather than percentages.

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PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES OF LOCAL OFFICIALS AND CITIZENS GROUP REPRESENTATIVE
The perceptions and attitudes of officials and community leaders are important to an examination of election systems for several reasons. First, they are frequently reflected in administrative behavior and in evaluations of that behavior. In many cases they also indicate the willingness or unwillingness of community leadership to undertake needed administrative and legislative reform. Where opinions are backed by the power of an office or the resources of an organization, they take on added importance. Finally, such attitudinal data often show how different groups perceive community problems and the
⁵ Includes North Dakota with no statewide registration and New Hampshire and Vermont where a checklist system is used.
⁶ For the purposes of this study "evening hours" pertain to the hours after 5:00 p.m.

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extent to which they are sensitive to citizen needs.

Perdception of registration and voting problems
Long lines, short office hours, inaccessible registration and polling places, and registration periods remote from the date of election are common experiences to many Americans.

Interviews with local officials who hold the authority, responsibility and power to alleviate these problems show that they are generally insensitive to then. For instance, less than one-fourth of election officials held that the following were problems in their communities:
Residency requirements.
Complex registration procedures.
Complex absentee voting procedures.
Inconvenient registration hours.
Distant and inconvenient places of registation.

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Complicated voting procedures, i.e. use of voting machines and paper ballots.
Inconvenient hours of polling.
Positioning candidate names on the ballot.
Insuring the proper functioning of voting machines.

On the other hand, most persons representing voting rights groups viewed all of these as serious problems in their communities.

Attitudes toward legislative and administrative reforms
Although the need for legislative action to reform the electoral process has been documented and endorsed by several committees of national prominence (see page 1), the League of Women Voters Education Fund community study shows that local election officials are reluctant to support many legislative changes and to assume the responsibility for administering reforms. For