Senate Passes The "Help Re-Elect Lou Correa In 2010 Act"...

...otherwise known as SB 812, which passed the state Senate on May 24 by a 22-13 party-line vote. It would outlaw per-registration bounty programs.

I discovered this via a post by my friend Claudio Gallego on Orange Juice. Being a good Democrat, Claudio fans the flames of myth-making the OC Democrats have been stoking since registration flipping scandal broke amidst news of the OC GOP erasing the Democratic registration advantage in the 34th Senate District.

According to Claudio:

• The OC GOP believes it can only make registration inroads via registration fraud
• Correa's bill is simply intended to stop registration fraud
• Any Republican who voted against SB 812 must be for voter fraud

Yeah. And I'm the Tooth Fairy.

There are two kinds of paid voter registration programs: payment per registration, or simply paying the registration workers by the hour or a salary. The OC Republican Party uses the bounty method, and the OC Democrats use the hourly/salary method.

By a strange coincidence, Sen. Correa's bill has the effect of outlawing only the OC GOP program while leaving the OC Democratic program untouched.

SB 812 exists because the OC Republican Party's registration bounty program created the conditions for Correa's near-defeat in the 34th Senate race by Lynn Daucher. If not for that program, Correa would have coasted to re-election -- and in that case I can guarantee Sen. Correa would never have introduced SB 812.

If Correa's aim were to combat registration fraud, he could introduce legislation stiffening penalties for committing it, because the size of last year's registration flipping problem doesn't warrant outlawing bounty programs.

Out of the approximately 20,000 new voters registered under the OC GOP bounty program, a little less than 700 involved fraudulent registration flipping. That's 3.5% of those new registrants.

The small number doesn't excuse the circulators changing voters' party registration without their consent, but is does belie the Democratic myth that was a massive, systemic and deliberate campaign of fraud.

The OC GOP bounty program made central OC more politically competitive than it had been in a decade. The OC Democrats recovered from the shock of having their registration advantage snatched away, re-invigorated their own registration effort and have erased some of the OC GOP gains. It's called competition, and it makes both sides work harder.

I understand Sen. Correa would much rather stroll to re-election in 2010 than experience another life-or-death campaign. Outlawing the OC GOP's successful bounty program presents the hope of re-creating central OC's lopsided Democratic advantage and hopefully deterring a serious GOP challenge to his re-election -- while simultaneously earning the gratitude of his fellow OC Dems by restoring central OC as a safe haven for them.

I understand the real motivation for SB 812 -- but that doesn't excuse this use of government power to handicap one's political opponents. Incumbency does have its advantages.

I've no doubt SB 812 will pass the Assembly and go before Governor Schwarzenegger for his signature -- and hopefully that will happen when Arnold wakes and decides he feels like a Republican that day.

Comments

[demmother]

Perhaps if the OCGOP spent more time/effort/money verifying the registrations made by the bounty firms the law would not have been necessary.

[$tutzman]

There oughta be a law!

Why do Democrats always look to government as a first resort for everything?

[AdamK]

Having worked on a registration drive before Correa's last election, I have to agree with this legislation. Every single day I went out to register voters (not paid per signature) I came across a person who had been incorrectly and in many cases illegally registered as a Republican.

Professional signature gatherers travel from state to state making a bounty on each registration card they get. This practice only encourages overly aggressive signature gathering and fraud. Republicans don't need to outsource their voter registration campaigns to companies who from what I saw hire ex-felons and drug addicts with absolutely no interest in the political process.

I was paid the same salary regardless of the number of registration cards I brought back each day and therefore had no incentive to deceive people into registering to one particular party. The people I worked with were Democrats interested in helping the party grow in Orange County and received a menial salary, which in my case hardly covered the cost of gasoline I needed to carry out my work.

Surely there must be enough actual Republicans willing to work in 100 degree heat in Central Orange County in order to ensure their party's success.

[Art Pedroza]

I don't understand this. Why can't the GOP pay its registration workers by the hour? Do they prefer bounties so that consultants can make some money on this?

I for one spoke to dozens of people in Santa Ana over the last year and a half who either had their registrations incorrectly switched by GOP contractors or who knew someone who was switched.

All that aside, I can't imagine that the GOP will have an easy time doing registrations. Bush has pretty much screwed things for the party by building up such a huge deficit, messing up in Iraq, etc. Moreover, locall in OC many of the elected Reeps and the Central Committee members are a total embarrassment, particularly in Santa Ana.

Good luck Saolo - you will need it.

[Bladerunner]

Everytime political reform is proposed someone cries "foul" and decries the reform as politically motivated. This is no exception.

The funny thing is, the law applies equally--both Dems and Reps are prohibited from paying hired carnies by the card and both Dems and Reps are allowed to continue their pay by card efforts when the money goes through its local political clubs or Party committees. Enough fraud to justify change with the former, no fraud in the latter. A 3.5% fraud ratio is unacceptable--every vote counts(and I know Jubal did not sleep through the last supervisorial campaign on the 2000 Florida debacle).

It's beyond me why anyone seriously believes that the new GOP Field marshall won't be able to effectively recruit and operationalize a paid VR & VBM campaign in Red County using hourly or flat fee payment modalities. IS there anyone who seriously believes the GOP wil come up short with money for this?

I think that whats really going on here is that Republicans are tanking in the party preference polls in the country and are taking a hammering even in Red County with no active partisan drive going on. In Claudio's post he relates figures in the Central OC that shows D/S and Dems running neck and neck in new registrations and the GOP either losing voters or picking up far fewer then the others. I suspect Jubal and others are building up their own straw man excuse when their voter reg drive goes nowhere. It will be "Blame it on Lou" instead of "Blame it on Bush/Cheney/the War in Iraq/GOP corruption in Congress/A Republican Congress that forgot basic GOP principles of fiscal prudence, snoozing through global warming,etc".

Actually, confirming the Law of Unintended Consequences, if this bill gets signed by the Governor, it can only help lower GOP registration costs. Given that it is going to be so difficult to find people the next 3 years who want to register Republican in the Central OC, their payment per card would go up like gas prices--probably hitting $100 per registration in order to try and stay even semi-competitive with the Blues. This way they will pay an hourly or flat fee rate and be able to control costs somewhat. Jubal, credit that in-kind contribution to the GOP to none other then Can Do Lou.

[Jubal]

BR:

Hold on, there pard! Where did I blame any GOP registration woes on Lou? I understand dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Iraq War and the gap between talk and action in the latter years of the GOP Congress have made it harder to convince people to register Republican. But those factors were present a year ago, and the bounty reg program was still a success.

So why should the Reps abandon a program that's a demonstrated? I'd rather pay circulators for tangible results than pay them for their time.

Besides, the OC GOP does everything they can to guard against registration flipping. Once registration cards are turned, the new registrant gets a letter and a phone to ensure there was no mistake. And on the rare occasion an involuntary registration is discovered, it's dealt with -- as is the circulator responsible.

Your points about dissatisfaction with the GOP are well taken, BR -- but they are beside the point regarding Correa sudden interest in outlawing a registration method that is helped turn his political home turf from safe Democratic soil to competitive turf.

[rebecca]

Jubal, do you really not remember all those GOP registration gatherers who illegally reregistered people as Republicans? Really? Is that okay with you?

[Jubal]

Try reading the post.

[demmother]

Sounds like a 'few' cards got past the scrutny. There were several thousand questionable. you guys must have taken some time off when those cards came in.

What's wrong with hourly wages? That is honest labor.

[Jubal]

Denmother:

If you recall, the people whose registrations were flipped found out because of the letters they received from the OC GOP.

According to the Registrar of Voters, there are about 690. But if "several thousand" tickles your fancy, go right on repeating it. I wouldn't want to stand in the way of a good urban legend.

[Jubal]

What's wrong with hourly wages? That is honest labor.

Did I say it wasn't honest labor?

As one of the commenters above said, he was paid that way by the DPOC, and he got paid whether or he brought in a lot of registrations, or if he only brought in a few registrations.

I'd rather pay for actual results, i.e. real registrations, rather than someone's time and physical activity unrelated to actual results.

[Thomas.Anthony Gordon]

Crud........

I think I've been tricked into voting Republican all these years.

And thanks for all that change under my pillow when I was younger Jubal!

[Jubal]

You're welcome.

[Bladerunner]

Jubal--You missed my point. I didn't say you were blaming Lou for the current GOP reg woes----I speculated that if the bill becomes law and the GOP voter reg figures continue to tank you'll blame Can Do Lou for the bad numbers. not now--then.

The GOP self-policing didn't prevent the fraud and while the efforts to minimize it are commendable, self-policing is hit and miss, and in the crunch of campaigns, the safeguards against paid fraudmeisters could easily get put aside in the rush to do the next hit piece, photshop or sign tear-down party.

I think the fraud and the potential fraud justify it. I suggest that since the Dems would operate under the same "handicap" it would be a level playing field. When the Dems woke up from their snooz they turned the reg figures around in their paid (non-bounty)drive and I suspect the new GOP Field marshall can do just fine thankyou with any type of paid operation. And both parties will be able to continue the bounty system with their clubs and central committees, something you just ignore in your assault on the bill. The Dems have used bounty's in the past and would be just as handicapped as the GOP.

[dave swanson]

thats cute for art to rail against the local gop, especially in santa ana when a few months ago he was one of those "leaders" then ran away. it must be easy for art to be bomb thrower but not actually fight for something, its no wonder nobody takes him seriously.

[demmother]

Some of us believe that a per card plus any petition signatures could be a temptation to some of these 'overzealous' workers.

690 questionable or confirmed switches? I had 20,000 on the brain when I write the above. It was closer to two thousand questionable county wide - but these were Dem to Rep only; not Green, Lib or DTS to Rep.

DPOC volunteers made contact with as many as possible on the list. You and I both know how the general population feels about Party mailings (round file) or robo calls (delete). There was a reasonable percentage of those who did not know they were switched from the ROV data. Of the contacts the DPOC made, the percentage of did not know they were switched was greater than 3.5%.

On the lighter side, I liked your typo that stated your new registrants recieved a letter and a phone!!! Not enough to get me to switch, but thanks.

[Jubal]

What if it was a Barbie phone?

[observer]

Look more closely at the details. This bill DOES NOT ban bounty programs -- it just bans bounty payments by everyone EXCEPT the state political parties.

With the Orange County Republican party taking over the bounty program, it shouldn't even slow them down in Senate District 34.

If you want to see the real targets of this bill, look elsewhere.