Thread: GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest

GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest - Los Angeles Times

GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest. Mark Jacoby, who was arrested in Ontario and owns a firm hired by the California Republican Party, ...
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fraud2 ... 2357.story

Ontario police arrest man in voter fraud case

Mark Jacoby, who owns a firm hired by the California Republican Party, violated state laws with his own registration, authorities say.

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 20, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- 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.

Voters say they were duped into...Contact the reporters with your experiences
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.

Goldfine said his client does business in many states, traveling frequently, and his permanent address has been his parents' Los Angeles County home, where he received mail and registered to vote.

Demerjian said his office is continuing to investigate allegations that YPM workers improperly re-registered voters with the GOP.

Several dozen voters recently told The Times that YPM workers said they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Other voters said they had no idea their registration was being changed.

YPM has been accused of using bait-and-switch tactics 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.

In a written statement Sunday, the state Republican Party called the charges against Jacoby "politically motivated." The party said the charges do not support accusations from voters and Democratic officials that YPM has been duping voters into joining the GOP.

The statement accused Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who announced the arrest, of "using her office to play politics."

Bowen is a Democrat.

evan.halper@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 2357.story

Maybe the Republicans will learn a lesson; do not hire undocumented immigrants. You need Americans on your side doing the work. Next, the Democrats are going to learn the lesson. For there is not going to be any money to give away to the undocumented immigrants. BROKEN SYSTEM!

So have they arrested anyone from ACORN for doing the same thing, only ten times the number????

They need to stop paying people to register to vote! It amounts to BUYING votes.

Is this the best the liberal media could come up with as a response to the ACORN situation. Weak, very weak.

Voter fraud arrest leaves Republicans seething
GOP says trumped-up count designed to distract from ACORN

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Posted: October 20, 2008
10:47 pm Eastern


By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


The arrest of a GOP voter registration recruiter on the eve of California's registration deadline has outraged the state's Republicans, who now say California's secretary of state, a Democrat, timed the arrest to distract the public from ACORN's voter fraud scandals.

Mark Jacoby, 25, was arrested this weekend for allegedly falsifying his own voter registration by fraudulently claiming his parents' Los Angeles County address so he could legally gather voter signatures in California.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office alleges Jacoby did not live at the address, thereby perjuring himself and committing a felony for falsely claiming voter eligibility. If convicted, Jacoby faces up to 3 years in prison.

Hector Barajas, communications director for the California Republican Party, however, told WND that the charges are bogus, claiming that while Jacoby travels the nation working on voter registrations, his childhood home is still his home.

"He still has his car payment that comes into his parents address, he still has his bills that come into his parents address and he files his taxes here in the state of California," Barajas said. "It begs the question … where else is an individual supposed to register to vote?"

Further, California Republicans are charging that the arrest of a GOP voting registration worker is a deliberate attempt to distract the public from the abuses of the more Democrat-friendly Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

California Republicans released a statement that reads, "It's clear that Bowen, herself the recipient of an ACORN endorsement (still displayed on her campaign website), has elevated these issues 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 says.

"Voter registration fraud is a serious issue," Secretary Bowen said in a statement released immediately following the arrest, "which is why I vigorously investigate all allegations of elections fraud. Where there's a case to be made, I will forward it to law enforcement for criminal prosecution."

WND contacted Bowen's office for comment on the Republicans' assertions, but our phone call was not returned.

Both Republicans and the ACORN group have made headlines in Southern California in the past week.

On Friday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on ACORN voter registration violations, citing over 1,850 invalid registration cards turned into San Diego County and quoting the county's chief deputy of voter services saying some of the errors "were intentional because there were people who were being paid to turn in these forms, something similar to what we have been seeing in other parts of the country."

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times ran a feature story on area voters claiming they were duped into registering as Republicans, a charge the state's GOP denies.

The Times story focused on Jacoby, whose company, Young Political Majors, was accused of tricking voters.

Late Saturday night, Jacoby was arrested, though not for anything directly tied to the Times story, but on a warrant outstanding since Oct. 3 for allegedly falsifying his own registration card.

"Why go out and arrest an individual the weekend before the deadline of voter registration?" Barajas asked WND. "They had an arrest warrant issued on Oct. 3. … But yet they used nine officers and seven squad cars, they held this individual for 19 hours."

Barajas told WND he believes Debra Bowen is turning a selective eye upon who she seeks to charge with voter fraud.

"In her statement [Bowen] talked about making sure they protect the integrity of voter registration," Barajas said. "Where's her denouncement of ACORN, when this last week the San Diego Union Tribune reported the district attorney found there were a lot of improprieties?"

He added, "Our kids have been assaulted, have been threatened … Where's the denouncement there? Where's the press release there? Where are the arrests there?

"The secretary of state is supposed to protect the rights of all. When you have this official engaged in partisan politics and not willing to denounce those on the left … it cries out for foul play in this election," Barajas said.


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