Orange County GOP In Hot Water After Voters Tricked Into Registering As Republicans

[Joanne98]

Orange County authorities are launching an investigation into possible voter registration fraud after a local newspaper reported over a hundred cases of voters being tricked into registering as Republicans by petitioners who asked them to sign petitions for, among other causes, legalizing pot.

The Orange County Register reported last week that the Orange County District Attorney's office announced it would team up with the Secretary of State on the case, following a Register report that 99 written complaints were filed since March by voters who said they were registered as Republicans without their consent.

Another 74 voters reached by the Register said they, too, were unwillingly made members of the GOP.

In a lengthy investigation published earlier this month, the paper pointed to an $8 "bounty" offered by the California Republican Party for each new registration as a cause for the problems. It identified multiple petitioners who work for vendors "with ties to the California Republican Party." Back in 2006, a similar scandal led to the convictions of several petitioners.

The Register explains how it went down this time around:

Some voters told the Register they specifically remember marking themselves as something other than a Republican. Others say the petitioner told them they had to check Republican in order for their signature to count, or because Republicans were sponsoring their signature gathering or for some other vaguely official-sounding reason.
In some cases, voters were told marking Republican didn't change their actual voter registration. Others were told they could always change back. A few even said they didn't know they were signing official documents of any kind - they said the signature gatherers made off like they were students, collecting signatures for a class project.

Democrats have called on the U.S. Attorney to investigate.

Read the Register's original story in full here.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/orange_county_gop_in_hot_water_after_report_of_vot.php?ref=fpb

[SpiralHawk]

1. Republicon Family Values - skanky in all regards

Ptoooey

[zipplewrath]

2. Can you imagine if ACORN had been involved?

The GOP woulda been hollerin' "voter fraud".

[Dappleganger]

3. Exactly. nt

[hobbit709]

4. Proving once again that they're projecting.

[LynneSin]

5. Republicans have been doing that for decades - they did that to me too

I was always politically inclined even back when I was a teenager. It all started with Jimmy Carter - I knew I was a democrat when I wasn't even in my teens yet.

So on my 18th birthday I couldn't wait to register to vote. Our local tax collector registered voters and mom said I could go there and he would take care of it.

So the day after my 18th birthday I stopped by and he handed me a card and said i just needed to fill out and be done.

I swore I was setup as a democrat but was I shocked when my voter card came back saying "republican".

I was leaving for college soon so when I got there I new even moreso I was a democrats - the republicans were all annoying as hell. So we fixed my registration then. Been a democrat ever since.

[lonestarnot]

6. Asshats!