voter registration fraud in California

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.

Those who were formerly Democrats may stop receiving phone calls and literature from that party, perhaps affecting its get-out-the-vote efforts. They also will be given only a Republican ballot in the next primary election if they do not switch their registration back before then.

Some also report having their registration status changed to absentee without their permission; if they show up at the polls without a ballot they may be unable to vote.

The Times randomly interviewed 46 of the hundreds of voters whose election records show they were recently re-registered as Republicans by YPM, and 37 of them -- more than 80% -- said that they were misled into making the change or that it was done without their knowledge.

Let's be clear - registration fraud is endemic to both sides of the aisle because of the existence of these registration firms like YPM, which are paid a fixed dollar amount per registration. Until the two political parties disavow hiring these firms - and I think a law outlawing it would be appropriate as part of a general election reform package - expect this to continue.

That said, registration fraud is not as alarming as voter fraud. Alarming, yes, but the key difference here is that in registration fraud, the firms are inventing a person who does not exist. In voter fraud, an existing person is trying to cast a fraudulent vote.

Still, in this specific case, the way in which registration fraud was perpetrated actually did serve to disenfranchise and interfere with the votes of actual voters, by falsely converting them into "absentee" voters without their knowledge. This crosses the line from pure registration fraud and into voter fraud territory.