According to numbers posted on the Registrar of Voters Web site this morning, registered Democratics now exceed registered Republicans in San Bernardino County.

The county has long been a Republican stronghold, but political experts credit enthusiasm for the upcoming election for the recent increase.

The Democrats' registration efforts seemed to be stymied just weeks ago when a voter fraud scandal implicating a Republican political campaign company unravelled in the county. The head of Young Political Majors was arrested and charged with two felonies slightly more than a week ago.

This blog has been chronicling how a number of San Bernardino County voters believe they were duped into being registered as Republicans. The group accused of voter fraud, Young Political Majors, apparently has run into some trouble elsewhere in the state, the Ventura County Star reported yesterday. The story is below.

Web site: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/sep/28/voter-registration-effort-criticized/

Voter registration effort criticized

Democrats say Republicans are applying force

Charges that a Republican Party voter registration effort is illegally forcing voters to choose the GOP label were leveled by Democratic Party activists Friday, and police were called to shopping centers in Ventura and Oxnard to keep the peace, officials said.

A spokesman for the state Republican Party said the effort is above-board, and he accused Democrats of repeating a pattern from other states of making false accusations against the group, Young Political Majors, to get sympathetic headlines from allegations that never result in formal charges.

Accusations of people being approached by Young Political Majors employees taking a survey or gathering petitions on child sex abusers but then getting registered against their will as Republicans, were filed with the Ventura County District Attorney's Office late Friday afternoon.

"We'll review the matter in conjunction with the elections officials in Ventura County," said Assistant District Attorney Jeff Bennett.

'Really, really upset'

Paid employees of Young Political Majors were accosted outside the Oxnard Wal-Mart store over their party recruitment efforts Thursday and Friday, with a minor scuffle breaking out at one point, said an Oxnard police official.

A shouting match broke out Friday afternoon between the Republicans and activists with Vote Blue, a Democratic-backed group, at the Target store on Main Street in Ventura.

Among the charges leveled by Vote Blue are complaints by at least two people that they were asked to support the petition, only to eventually get postcards from the Ventura County Elections Division confirming they had become card-carrying members of the GOP.

"I was really, really upset," said Ventura resident Tanya Sliger, 37, a medical assistant who said she answered her door to find a Young Political Majors employee with a petition last summer.

"A girl came knocking and told me she was doing a poll for the Republican Party, and I told her over and over I was a Democrat," Sliger said. "I was told I was answering a poll, but she was very sneaky, and I could tell something was up."

Thousand Oaks college student Armon Anderson, 18, said he was approached by a person to sign a petition while studying at Moorpark College. "It was like brainwashing," he said, "and he wouldn't let us register as anything other than a Republican."

Similar allegations

State Democratic spokesman Bob Mulholland said people were told they can sign the anti-child-molester petition only if they switch allegiance to the Republican Party. Even if that is legal, he said, "they absolutely cannot get away with changing party registrations."

But his counterpart for the state GOP, Hector Barajas, said similar allegations have been slung at Young Political Majors in other states and California counties, "and there are never any charges, because there are never any violations. It's easy to make the charge when there is nothing there."

Democrats working for Vote Blue have been collecting evidence and affidavits, said organizer Helen Conly. She said they presented sworn statements from people who had their affiliations changed or who were told they could not sign their names on petitions to oppose child sexual abuse unless they changed their party affiliations.

Barajas said Young Political Majors workers clearly identify themselves as being with the GOP and take at least three steps to make sure that only Republicans are marked down as such.

Young Political Majors owner Mark Jacoby, who has conducted similar registration drives in Florida, Arizona and other states, said his firm will not accept a voter registration form from an employee unless it is accompanied by a signed affidavit on a form bordered with Republican elephants, indicating that the voter understands he or she has chosen the GOP without tricks or pressure.

Political activity allowed

Barajas said Democratic bloggers are following the organizers and urging Democrats to confront the registration drive workers and to demand that store managers oust the Young Political Majors workers from shopping centers.

The state constitution allows political activity at private shopping centers so long as commerce is not affected.

A spokeswoman for the California Secretary of State said her office has a toll-free phone number for people who suspect their party affiliations were changed. It is 800-345-VOTE.

Today's story: http://www.sbsun.com/sanbernardino/ci_10559994

A San Bernardino resident just called in to say that he and his wife signed petitions at Wal-Marts in San Bernardino and Highland. One of the petitions they believed they were signing was to put tracking devices on child molesters.

"I've got two little girls," the resident said about what convinced him to sign the petition. "Anything about keeping child molesters in prison we're definitely going to sign."

The Sun has received a number of reports from residents in San Bernardino County who suspect they may have been victims of voter fraud.

The county Democratic Party says the voter registration scheme was conducted at Wal-Marts in Chino, Chino Hills, Fontana, Rialto and San Bernardino.

UPDATE: Reached yesterday by phone, Kate Folmar, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, had this to say:

As a voter fraud scandal continues to unravel in San Bernardino County, we've received a few calls from people who say they were unknowingly registered as Republicans after signing what they believed was a petition to increase prison time for child molesters.

Click here to read today's latest story: http://www.sbsun.com/sanbernardino/ci_10559994

If you are concerned you were a victim of the voter fraud scheme, there are two government agencies you should call:

• The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters, 909-387-8300, to check how you are registered and to report voter fraud.
• The California Secretary of State, (800) 345-8683, a voter fraud hotline to report instances of voter fraud.

The alleged voter fraud scam with the district attorney is investigating occurred at Wal-Marts in Chino, Chino Hills, Fontana, Rialto and San Bernardino, according to the Democratic Party. 

The San Bernardino County District Attorney confirmed Wednesday that an investigation is underway into a claim of voter fraud filed by the local Democratic Party.

The Democrats claim the group Young Political Majors that used a petition drive as a front to register San Bernardino County residents as Republicans without their knowledge.

Young Political Majors collected signatures at Wal-Marts in Chino, Chino Hills, Fontana, Rialto and San Bernardino, said Carol Robb, chairwoman of the county Democratic Party. Students at Chaffey and San Bernardino Valley colleges also unknowingly registered Republicans,  Robb said.

The San Bernardino County Democratic Party disclosed details today implicating a Republican voter registration group that may have changed voters' party affiliation or registered them as Republican without their knowing.

Democratic leaders said at a press conference outside the Registrar of Voters office in San Bernardino that the group Young Political Majors had fanned out at Wal-Marts across the county asking people to sign a petition to stop sexual predators from getting out of jail.

Thirty-three voters who signed the petition said their party affiliation had been changed from Democrat to Republican, said Carol Robb, chairwoman of the county Democratic Party.

Similar allegations surrounding the group have emerged in Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties, said Sam Clauder, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Democratic Party.

The District Attorney is evaluating the claim of voter fraud, and it is unclear when a decision will be reached about conducting an investigation, said Susan Mickey, District Attorney spokeswoman.

"I'm not sure at this time they know how long it will take," she said.