HOUSE PASSES `MOTOR-VOTER', BUT BUSH VETO SEEMS LIKELY

Legislation to register voters by mail or when they apply for drivers' licenses or government benefits is on its way to the White House for an expected veto by President Bush.

The House on Tuesday joined the Senate in passing a so-called motor-voter bill to reach 90 percent of the estimated 65 million citizens who are eligible to vote but can't cast ballots on election day because they didn't register in advance.

But like a Senate vote in May, the 268 to 153 House majority was short the two-thirds vote Congress would need to enact the bill over Bush's objections. The only concession Democrats had granted Republicans over the past month was to postpone the bill's effective date until 1994.