Jackson Free Press

The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that a Republican firm hired in many states to register voters is in big trouble:

Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country. Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.

"I am not a Republican," insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet-clinic manager and former Democrat from Ventura who said she was duped by a signature gatherer into joining the GOP. "I certainly . . . won't sign anything in front of a grocery store ever again."

It is a bait-and-switch scheme familiar to election experts. The firm hired by the California Republican Party -- a small company called Young Political Majors, or YPM, which operates in several states -- has been accused of using the tactic across the country.

Election officials and lawmakers have launched investigations into the activities of YPM workers in Florida and Massachusetts. In Arizona, the firm was recently a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit. Prosecutors in Los Angeles and Ventura counties say they are investigating complaints about the company.

The firm, which a Republican Party spokesman said is paid $7 to $12 for each registration it secures, has denied any wrongdoing and says it has never been charged with a crime.

The 70,000 voters YPM has registered for the Republican Party this year will help combat the public perception that it is struggling amid Democratic gains nationally, give a boost to fundraising efforts and bolster member support for party leaders, political strategists from both parties say.

Previous Comments

ID

139344

Comment

It seems the Young Political Majors have been up to voter tricks for many weeks now; you can find many reports in California about their tricks. Check out this story about "the largest red county in the nation" going blue in San Bernardino—after the YPMers were run out of town to avoid criminal charges: Long touted by Republicans as "the largest red county in the nation," San Bernardino leaves the ranks of red counties such as San Diego, Orange and Riverside, to join the ranks of blue counties along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Napa, Marin, Sonoma, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Mendocino. [...] The dramatic shift in registration has been attributed to the wide-spread corruption of locally elected Republicans, the popularity of the Obama Presidential campaign, the condition of the region's economy, and a backlash against massive voter fraud recently committed by a crew of Republican contractors who disappeared after county Democrats caught them committing felony violations of the state elections code. In the four weeks since Mark Jacoby and his Young Political Majors fled the county to avoid criminal prosecution, leaving only volunteers to register Republicans, Democrats have registered 6,165 more voters than the Republicans have. San Bernardino County covers more than twenty thousand square miles, stretching from the border of Los Angeles County on the west to the Nevada state border on the north and the Colorado River and Arizona state border on the east.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-18T11:49:35-06:00

ID

139345

Comment

And don't miss Obama's seven-page letter to the U.S. attorney general about Republican voter fraud and suppression.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-18T11:53:30-06:00

ID

139347

Comment

YPM was incorporated in Dunedine, Fla., by Mark A. Jacoby, but that page indicates that the incorporation is "inactive."

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-18T12:15:45-06:00

ID

139363

Comment

Anyone trying to perpetuate voter fraud should be tried and convicted if found guilty.

Author

Jeff Lucas

Date

2008-10-19T19:24:58-06:00

ID

139376

Comment

Well, well: The head of YPM, Mark Jacoby, has been arrested, the Los Angeles Times reports: Note the differences between what he is accused of doing, and what ACORN has done. He is accused of being paid per registration and of using fake addresses for himself in order to qualify in states like California. He is the head of the firm hired by the GOP to register voters across the country. And he is accusing of fooling people into changing their registration based on a fake petition about child molesters. ACORN, on the other hand, is hiring people to work by the hour registering voters, and when they find applications that some workers filled out with names like "Mickey Mouse," which would never make it past the local authorities, they are required to file them anyway, but note them as frauds. The GOP is playing games with ACORN, and it is an insult to our intelligence to act like ACORN is trying to perpetuate massive fraud when it is following the damn law. Now, the games Mr. Jacoby seems to be playing are another thing entirely

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-20T11:25:10-06:00

ID

139377

Comment

From that Times story: The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states. Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department late Saturday came after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP. Dan Goldfine, an attorney for Jacoby, on Sunday denied any wrongdoing by his client and called the charges "baseless." He said the arrest outside an Ontario hotel, which involved seven squad cars and nine police officers, was part of a "long pattern of harassment against Mr. Jacoby for an entirely valid voter registration effort." Goldfine said the case that prosecutors are bringing against his client involves charges that are rarely pressed. Jacoby was released on bail Sunday evening from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Goldfine said. After complaints by voters and Democratic Party officials, several agencies launched investigations into Jacoby's activities. They included the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury. "We contacted people at the addresses where he registered, and they have no idea who he is," said Dave Demerjian, head deputy of the public integrity unit at the L.A. County district attorney's office.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-20T11:26:49-06:00

ID

139378

Comment

The Obama campaign is assembling thousands of lawyers to deal what is expected to be a massive attempt by Republicans to keep voters from voting. Bloomberg reports.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-20T11:34:02-06:00

ID

139380

Comment

And let the intimidation begin. Not this time, folks. Not this time.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-20T11:36:13-06:00