Alternatives to Current Draft Registration Program Needed Unless Level of Compliance Improves.

摘要

Young men are required to register for the draft within 30 days of their 18th birthday. GAO found the rate of registration compliance has substantially deteriorated--from 93 percent in 1980, when there was a 2-week registration period, to 70 percent for the first 9 months of the 1981 continuous draft registration program. The Selective Service System's records, however, were just as accurate. A surge of late registrations resulted from the President's January 1982 decision to continue draft registration and from the media campaign that followed concerning possible prosecution of nonregistrants. GAO believes that, unless this higher rate of registration is sustained during 1982, alternatives will have to be developed. (Author)