Voter fraud hotline not so hot

An elderly voter from Pasadena just called the newsroom complaining about being given Democratic ballots at a polling place in the Crown City (she is a registered Republican). She said she could not see very well and when she finally figured out the mistake, she was told by the poll worker that they were out of Republican ballots.

What's more, when she called the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder to complain, she could not get through on the voter fraud hotline. So we gave it a try (the number is 800-815-2666) and we found we couldn't get through either. Callers are greeted with one of those ubiquitous multiple-choice audio menus, one of which is supposed to send you to the voter fraud line (choice #6). But after selecting number 6, the system just transfers the caller back to the main menu again. I tried it about three times and kept getting sent on the automated merry-go-round.

We are going to call the registrar's media relations office to find out what is going on.