Constitutional Law

Calif. Voters Say They Were Duped Into Registering

An instance of “vote fraud” may have actually been uncovered. Over the weekend, California and Canadian officials arrested the owner of a firm hired by the California Republican Party to register Republicans. California investigators say Mark Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors (YPM), fraudulently registered himself to vote in California and that his organization illegally registered Republicans. The Los Angeles Times reports that dozens of voters in California told officials that they were tricked by YPM to register. The voters, the newspaper reports, said YPM workers told them they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office issued a warrant earlier this month for Jacoby’s arrest on charges of voter registration fraud and perjury. He was arrested outside an Ontario hotel this past weekend. The district attorney’s office told the Times that it was still investigating whether YPM workers improperly re-registered voters as Republicans. The newspaper said dozens of voters came forward to say that YPM officials had told them they must be Republican in order to sign the petition.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on October 20, 2008 (boomark / email).