GOP Halts Paid Voter-Drive Program
Probes in Orange and San Bernardino counties spark suspension of signups using hired agents.
By Ashley Powers and Lynn Doan, Times Staff Writers
March 8, 2006
The California Republican Party has suspended its fee-based voter registration program while prosecutors in San Bernardino and Orange counties investigate possible registration fraud connected to private firms hired by the party, GOP officials said.
The suspension came after election officials in the two counties discovered thousands of flawed registration forms and received complaints from residents who said they had been improperly registered as Republicans.
Officials in both counties have turned over the forms to local prosecutors and contacted the California secretary of state.
The voter registration program, in which the GOP paid private contractors $3 for each new registration submitted, was credited with adding 750,000 Republican registrations to state voter rolls in the last three years.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-voterfraud8mar08,1,1567564.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true