ACORN, Voter Registration Fraud

         It seems voter registration fraud is on the news again lately. ACORN? Not this time. The culprit is on the other team, the head of a group hired by the California Republican Party (CRP). The guy was arrested and sure enough, the knee-jerk reaction of the CRP is that this is ‘politically motivated’. Take note that the CRP did not contest the charges. Charges against ACORN is now part of the McCain/Palin campaign. ACORN, for their part, is saying they themselves reported this anomaly to the authorities.  They say by law they have to turn over all forms but have marked the suspicious ones. Charges and counter charges of fraud are not new. Remember not too long ago, the Democrats were complaining about being cheated in Florida during the Bush vs. Gore elections and in Ohio during the Bush vs. Kerry face-off.

UPDATE:

in at least three West Virginia counties, voters have complained that when they tried to vote for Barack Obama, the touchscreen voting machine cast their vote for John McCain. One voter reported that all of their Democratic votes, for every level of government, were magically transformed into Republican ones.

http://www.gizmodo.com/5066652/voting-machine-no-you-really-meant-to-vote-for-mccain/

 

So, folks, who, REALLY is cheating here?

FOXNews.com

Monday, October 20, 2008

The head of a voter registration group hired by the California Republican Party was arrested over the weekend for allegedly lying about his address in the state in order to vote illegally, the office of California’s secretary of state announced Sunday.

Mark Anthony Jacoby, the owner of a signature-gathering firm called Young Political Majors, was taken into custody by Ontario police just after midnight Saturday and booked with a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

Jacoby allegedly registered himself at his childhood home in Los Angeles, even though he no longer lives there. It is voter fraud to register if ineligible and perjury to provide false information on a voter registration card. Jacoby was charged with two counts of each relating to his 2006 and 2007 registration.

“Voter registration fraud is a serious issue, which is why I vigorously investigate all allegations of elections fraud,” said Bowen, California’s chief elections officer. “Where there’s a case to be made, I will forward it to law enforcement for criminal prosecution.” 

An arraignment date has not been scheduled yet. Bail was set at $50,000.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Jacoby’s firm was paid $7 to $12 by the CRP for each GOP voter registration signature, but dozens of voters who signed on said they were duped into registering as Republicans and thought they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. 

The CRP called the arrest “politically motivated.”

“The fact that these charges are being leveled against an individual operating in a highly-contested area of California, and the significant gap between recent allegations and the charges we’ve seen today suggests that this is politically motivated,” reads a statement by the party. 

It also claims Bowen, a recipient of donations from the embattled ACORN voter registration group, is trying to “achieve maximum political benefit and deflect attention from the Democratic presidential nominee’s high-profiled problems and associations with the radical community activist group ACORN. 

“While we condemn voter fraud in all forms, it is evident that Debra Bowen is using her office to play politics with the public’s perception of political parties. This is inappropriate at least, and an abuse of her office and a willing suspension of her duties at worst,” the statement reads.