The San Bernardino County Republican Party is encouraging the District Attorney’s Office and Registrar of Voters to aggressively investigate a recent rash of apparent voter-registration fraud the party alleges may have been committed by paid petition circulators in San Bernardino County. Similar allegations are also being investigated in the City of Rialto and the County of Orange.
Staff from the County Republican Party Central Committee were informed Thursday by the Registrar of Voters that registrations gathered by associates of the firm owned by the party’s recently retained voter-registration consultant, John Burkett of Riverside, may have included more than 3,000 instances of potential registration fraud over the past two months. A number of those alleged fraudulent registrations have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office.
County Republican Party Chairman Bill Postmus last week ordered a halt to the party’s paid voter registration program and ordered that no invoices for registrations submitted this year be paid until the County’s investigations are complete and all registrations to be paid for by the Republican Party are verified as authentic. The San Bernardino County Republican Party has not paid Burkett’s firm for any voter registrations this year.
"This situation is very serious, and it must be investigated fully so that if anyone has engaged in fraudulent activities they can be prosecuted immediately to the fullest extent of the law," Postmus said. "These allegations call the integrity of our current paid registration program into question, therefore we will continue to cooperate and participate fully with the county’s investigations while continuing with our own investigations."
Local Republican staffers recently noted apparent irregularities with at least 600 registration affidavits, and last week staff contacted the County Registrar of Voters to request a meeting to discuss the apparent irregularities. Upon meeting with Registrar Kari Verjil, party staff learned that such irregularities apparently involve more than 3,000 registrations that have been turned in to the county. The alleged irregularities include:
– Registration affidavits filled out and signed by a coordinator rather than the registrant;
– Registrations showing the same person registering as many as four times in the past six months, each time with a different Social Security number;
– Complaint letters from individuals stating that they did not register Republican;
– Complaint letters from registrants who are not US Citizens.
The county party’s voter registration coordinator, Robert Eland, said a certain number of irregular cards is not unusual, but the recent rash of problems came about suddenly as a result of several large initiative petition drives. Eland, who was in charge of voter registration programs for the California Republican Party in 2003 and 2004, at that time implemented strict guidelines for verifying registrations. In 2004, he worked with the registrar of voters in San Joaquin County to uncover several incidents of fraud. Those suspected of registration fraud were subsequently prosecuted. Eland has implemented the same fraud-prevention measures he employed on behalf of the state party since being hired by the county Republican Party in 2005.
As standard practice, the county party attempts to verify 100 percent of the registration cards submitted through the party’s registration programs. The party uses software to identify indicators of potential irregularities, such as multiple registrants within a single household or multiple last names within a single residence. Such potential indicators prompt staff to request copies of affidavits for further inspection. The party also mails postcards to all new registrants and monitors the number of returned postcards as an additional indicator of potentially bad registrations.
Additionally, with new regulations effective Jan. 1 — namely the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) — the Secretary of State this year attained the ability to check newly registered voters’ names against their California Driver License and/or Social Security numbers. The new system is called Cal Validator. "Prior to January 1, California election officials didn’t have the ability to verify each and every registration card in this manner," said County Republican Party Executive Director Adam Aleman. He added that Cal Validator was a key factor in the discovery of the recent rash of apparently irregular registrations in San Bernardino County. "Thankfully, with Cal Validator in place, petition vendors and their subcontractors will now be better held accountable if they are in any way responsible for fraud in the registration process," Aleman said.
Any San Bernardino County residents who believe they may have been improperly registered to vote should call the Registrar of Voters’ Office at (909) 387-8300.