Election Day may be over, but trust in the political process could be slow in returning for some Central Coast residents.
When Lompoc resident Carolyn Garrett was asked to sign a petition strengthening sentencing for child molesters in October, she never imagined what would happen next.
“I got a call from the Republic National Convention thanking me for switching over to the party, and I told them, ‘No, I did not,’” said Garrett, a lifelong Democrat.
And Garrett isn’t the only person to have fallen victim to such a problem lately.
Billie Alvarez, chief deputy registrar of voters for Santa Barbara County, said that her department has received seven complaints of voter fraud in the Lompoc area in the last few months.
The majority of complaints were said to have occurred outside of the Wal-Mart in Lompoc, Alvarez said. Volunteers approached shoppers leaving the store with voter registration materials and other petitions.
People filing complaints to the county said that members of the two organizations “intimidated them to register to vote a certain way or wouldn’t let them register to vote at all,” Alvarez said.
In Garrett’s case, the volunteer asked if she would like to sign the petition to strengthen sentencing for child molesters. Garrett was asked for her address and phone number, and the last four numbers of her social security number, which she gladly gave.
After that, it got confusing, Garrett said.
“[The volunteer] took out another petition and told me that I needed to sign it to confirm I was a Republican. I told her I wasn’t, but she said they wouldn’t care,” she said.
One week later, Garrett received a call from the Republican National Convention. After that, she notified the county registrar office and got her political affiliation switched back to Democrat.
Initial investigations found that most of the complaints, including Garrett’s, were linked to an organization known as Young Political Majors.
On Oct. 19, the Secretary of State released a statement announcing that the owner of Young Political Majors, Mark Anthony Jacoby, had been arrested in Ontario on suspicion of committing voter registration fraud. He was charged with four felonies: two counts of voter registration fraud and two counts of perjury.
According to the release, Jacoby was arrested after allegedly registering himself to vote, once in 2006 and again in 2007, at an address where he did not live. Under California state law, signature gatherers are required to sign a declaration stating that they are either registered to vote or are eligible to register in California. Jacoby allegedly registered to vote at his childhood home in Los Angeles to meet this requirement.
“Our view is that the charges filed against Mr. Jacoby are without merit,” said Jacoby’s Arizona-based lawyer, Dan Goldfine. “We’re convinced that the charges will be dropped or he’ll prevail in court.”
But the experience still doesn’t sit right with Garrett, who said that she now refuses to sign anything presented to her by a stranger.
“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, and for them to take away that choice—I didn’t like it at all,” Garrett said. “And it frightens me to think how many people they did that to.”
The Secretary of State’s office is continuing its investigation into Jacoby’s company, along with reports of online voter fraud connected to another company. As of press time, no other information was available concerning the investigation.
Anyone who has witnessed suspected voter fraud can contact the state’s election fraud investigation unit at 1-800-345-VOTE.
This article appears in Nov 6-13, 2008.