Group accused of voter fraud in San Bernardino County also gets trouble in Ventura County

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.