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Fraud Suspected in Voter Registering: County's Republican Party Asks for Investigation By District Attorney

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Tracie Troha

ight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 8--SAN BERNARDINO -- The San Bernardino County Republican Party has asked the District Attorney's office to investigate more than 3,000 instances of voter registration fraud during the past two months. The party alleges the fraud may have been committed by individuals hired by the GOP's voter registration consultant, John Burkett of Riverside, to conduct registration drives in the county. Kari Verjil, county registrar of voters, said many of the registration forms the county received from the drives had the same last four digits of a social security number and did not have the required driver license numbers. "There is a possibility that someone made up the last four social security numbers to turn the cards in," Verjil said. Republican staffers and the Registrar of Voters office also found registration forms filled out by a coordinator rather than a registrant and received complaint letters from registrants who were not U.S. citizens or did not register as Republican. County Republican Party Chairman Bill Postmus said he halted the paid voter registration program and ordered that no one involved in the registration drives be paid until the county's investigation is complete and all the forms are verified as authentic. The party also hasn't paid Burkett's firm for any voter registrations this year. "I spoke to Mike Ramos, the district attorney, this morning and asked for an immediate investigation with respect to this," Postmus said. "These people need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." Verjil said a member of her staff will also be contacting some of the voters by mail to ask for their driver license numbers in order to verify authenticity. Verjil and Postmus said these alleged acts of fraud were caught through the state's new Cal Validator system. The system, first introduced in January, checks newly registered voters against their state driver license or social security numbers. "Prior to January 1 California election officials didn't have the ability to verify each and every registration card in this manner," said Adam Aleman, county GOP Executive Director. Postmus said he does not believe High Desert residents were impacted by the possible case of fraud. San Bernardino residents who believe they may have been improperly registered to vote should call the Registrar of Voters office at 909-387-8300. Tracie Troha can be reached at 955-5358 or at ttroha@vvdailypress.com. From Here: -- Back to today's news -- News Archive -- Join the discussion at the community forum

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Copyright (c) 2006, Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.

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Source: Daily Press - Victorville, California

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