And Republicans Complain About ACORN?

From TPM. When it comes to voter fraud, the right-wingers are masters of critique for organizations like ACORN who have been known to register Mickey Mouse just to meet a certain quota for their minimum wage paycheck. But the Republicans may be pretty artful with the voter fraud techniques themselves. Check out this investigation going on in California with many complaints of people being tricked into registering as Republicans, some thinking they were signing a petition for legalizing marijuana!

Orange County authorities are launching an investigation into possible voter registration fraud after a local newspaper reported over a hundred cases of voters being tricked into registering as Republicans by petitioners who asked them to sign petitions for, among other causes, legalizing pot.

The Orange County Register reported last week that the Orange County District Attorney's office announced it would team up with the Secretary of State on the case, following a Register report that 99 written complaints were filed since March by voters who said they were registered as Republicans without their consent.

Another 74 voters reached by the Register said they, too, were unwillingly made members of the GOP.

Fox News is on this 24/7, right? How about that undercover pimp-guy?

Recent plans to pay college students extra bonuses ($8 bounty) for registering Republicans are in question.

From All Business:

In all, the Register called 348 registered Republicans in central Orange County and reached 90 of them. Of those, only 16 said they wanted to be Republicans. The rest told stories of fast-talking petitioners, some offering free sunglasses if they signed.

All of the voters identified by the Register are listed as under 28 years old; many said they knew little about politics or voting. A few, when told they were listed on the county voter rolls as a Republican, asked, "What is a Republican?"

The voters are all residents of the 34th state Senate District, where the Republican Party has high hopes of beating incumbent Democrat Lou Correa in the fall. Unlike the Democrats, the California Republican Party has a policy of paying signature gatherers who send them new GOP voter registration cards. Republicans are offering as much as $8 for each new GOP registration in that district.

Many believe the $8 "bounty" gives petitioners an incentive to commit fraud.

In 2006, the Register found a similar fraud pattern in Orange County that was blamed, in part, on the bounty paid to signature gatherers. That year, 167 voters complained to election officials that they were switched to Republican registration without their permission. The Register found another 112 voters who said they were tricked. Eleven signature gatherers were eventually convicted of falsifying registrations and other charges; eight went to jail.