I find this story out of California quite disturbing. The Los Angeles Times reports that a Republican contractor has been targeted with serious allegations of engaging in voter registration fraud – a stupid, repugnant, and unethical activity (H/T Volokh Conspiracy):
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….
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.
This story smells bad for some incompetent Republican leaders, but does not rise to the level of the ACORN scandals for four reasons:
1. YPM has yet to cause a formal FBI criminal investigation, like ACORN has.
2. Because of the nature and scale of their respective activities, the potential for any YPM impact on the outcome of the national election is several factors less than that caused by ACORN.
3. YPM is a private, openly partisan organization. ACORN hides behind claims of non-partisanship and has benefited from taxpayer funds while working to promote an ultra-liberal Democratic agenda.
4. YPM has no clear ties to national candidates in the way that ACORN has close ties to Barack Obama.
But I’m sure my liberal friend Matt (aka Curious Stranger) isn’t concerned about YPM’s activities. As he said:
Voter registration fraud is not voter fraud. That’s the key point that you’re hoping folks don’t understand. None of those bad registrations will result in votes being cast.
Matt thinks it’s no big deal. I think any activity that threatens the integrity of our elections is a serious problem. It’s just that the YPM story is a somewhat big story. The ACORN story is huge.
It’s good to see you can be so ideologically flexible in the service of your party.
Does it become a huge story when the owner of the firm involved gets arrested for the crime? Or is still just a “somewhat big” story. As far as I’m aware, none of the senior management of ACORN has ever been arrested.
I can also only assume that your comment moderation is automatically dumping my posts somewhere based on my email. After several attempts to post, I changed my email and now it magically works. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and blame it on shoddy anti-spam algorithms, but if it starts happening again, I’ll leave you alone in your echo chamber.
Matt, you should know that paranoia is not becoming. I don’t censor comments for content or point of view, so unless you were posting about male enhancement drugs or using four-letter words, I don’t know what happened. After all, I’m glad my readers get a chance to see where you’re coming from, so they can make more informed decisions.
Yes, that news makes it a bigger story, though it’s mitigated by the other observations above.
“It’s good to see you can be so ideologically flexible in the service of your party.”? Perhaps you could elaborate on what that’s supposed to mean. Because it comes across as nonsensical in the context of what I wrote. I do like to give you a second chance to redeem yourself.
““It’s good to see you can be so ideologically flexible in the service of your party.â€? Perhaps you could elaborate on what that’s supposed to mean. Because it comes across as nonsensical in the context of what I wrote. I do like to give you a second chance to redeem yourself.”
Your ability to find mitigating circumstances I mean.
“1. YPM has yet to cause a formal FBI criminal investigation, like ACORN has.”
Well, now they have the arrest of their owner.
“2. Because of the nature and scale of their respective activities, the potential for any YPM impact on the outcome of the national election is several factors less than that caused by ACORN.”
Given that voter registration fraud can’t doesn’t actually result in fraudulent votes being cast, I’m not sure how ACORN has *any* impact on the outcome of the national election.
“3. YPM is a private, openly partisan organization. ACORN hides behind claims of non-partisanship and has benefited from taxpayer funds while working to promote an ultra-liberal Democratic agenda.”
I don’t see how this is a mitigating factor. Is it less of a crime when everyone can clearly understand their motives? In any case, they weren’t revealing their partisan affiliations to the folks they were defrauding.
“4. YPM has no clear ties to national candidates in the way that ACORN has close ties to Barack Obama.”
I wasn’t aware that the California Republican Party, who was paying YPM for these registrations, has no clear ties to John McCain. Has the GOP excommunicated the California party?
Your anti-spam mechanisms are seriously fouled up – they are dumping comments into the ether, apparently without notifying you. I’d suggest a revamp.
Come on, you know that a situation is bad when the writer states, “This story smells bad for some incompetent Republican leaders, but does not rise to the level of the ACORN scandals for four reasons:”
The facts of this story are horrible, demonstrating the GOP has nothing of value as it pertains to message to offer voters, so they lie, deceive and cheat.
I’ve had enough of the GOP immaturely (like children) pointing fingers when caught. It’s time that the Party develop a message and stand for it, or resolve itself in the fact that it will fade away. With Internet access, the Population is too smart to fall for such archaic acts of deceit.
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