http://blogs.ocregister.com/...
Prior to the Tan Nguyen scandal last week where latino Dems received a letter telling them that if they were immigrants they could be arrested for attempting to vote, hundreds of Orange County Democrats and Independents found that their voter registration had been changed to Republican.
Today, between 9 and 12 people were arrested for voter fraud. GOP Scott Baugh of course came out with a strong statement:
"May they rot in jail for stealing from us and disenfranchising other voters."
But who is he kidding? Two voter scandals here, both by the GOP. Either the GOP needs to take some blame for this or they need to recognize that they themselves have fertilized the ground that has grown this corruption.
What's so incredibly cowardly about this is that so much of Orange County is blood red. Loretta Sanchez is quite the outlier here, mainly due to the large latino community in north county, who, other than supporting a huge segment of the local economy get to be the victims of the GOP that feels that 60%+ support isn't nearly sufficient.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 26, 2006 DEMOCRATIC PARTY STATEMENT ON VOTER FRAUD ARRESTS
Contact: Mike Levin, Executive Director, (714) 835-2122, mike@ocdemocrats.net
Today, Orange County Democratic Chairman, Frank Barbaro, commended Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas for making several arrests relating to the more than 500 verified complaints of voter registration fraud filed in the last seven months by the Democratic Party.
These arrests come after hundreds of Orange County registered voters, without their consent, had their party affiliations illegally changed from Democrat to Republican in a voter registration drive sponsored by the Republican Party.
"We are hopeful that these arrests, as well as the recent response by local Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh to the Tan Nguyen scandal, are indicative of a new effort by local Republican Party leaders to protect the rights of all Orange County voters," Barbaro said.
"The basic problem is that for years, certainly going back to the posting of uniformed guards at polling places to discourage Hispanic voters in 1988, the Republican Party has perpetuated a permissive political culture in which political candidates and their operatives think that they can act to suppress the democratic process without fear of repercussion. The unscrupulous letter of Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen did not happen in a vacuum. I have no doubt that the unfortunate history of Republican campaigns, including the voter registration fraud just now being addressed by the District Attorney, provided a context for his actions."
"Hopefully, these arrests are a good first step toward discouraging those who would wish to suppress the democratic process, and we are hopeful that more preemptive action will be taken in the future.
Specifically, we support the efforts of Supervisor Lou Correa to bring together law enforcement leaders in an Orange County Election Task Force that will monitor and quickly respond to all efforts to undermine a full and fair voting process."
Frank Barbaro
Democratic Party of Orange County