The LA Times reports on a GOP contractor with "a trail of fraud complaints" in California.

he 70,000 voters YPM has registered for the Republican Party this year will help combat the public perception that it is struggling amid Democratic gains nationally, give a boost to fundraising efforts and bolster member support for party leaders, political strategists from both parties say.

Those who were formerly Democrats may stop receiving phone calls and literature from that party, perhaps affecting its get-out-the-vote efforts. They also will be given only a Republican ballot in the next primary election if they do not switch their registration back before then.

Some also report having their registration status changed to absentee without their permission; if they show up at the polls without a ballot they may be unable to vote.

The Times randomly interviewed 46 of the hundreds of voters whose election records show they were recently re-registered as Republicans by YPM, and 37 of them -- more than 80% -- said that they were misled into making the change or that it was done without their knowledge.

While the lead focuses on the allegations that some people were duped into changing their party affiliation, the allegation that YPM duped people into registering for absentee ballots is far more worrisome. Such actions create a real risk that eligible voters could be disenfranchised, while also increasing the risk of actual vote fraud, because absentee vote fraud is much easier to pull off than in-person vote fraud.

The LA Times reports:

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters.

One thing that confuses me about this story is that the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down Arizona's residency requirements for circulators of candidate nominating petitions this past summer in Nader v. Brewer. So am I wrong in thinking Mr. Jacoby may have fraudulently registered at a California address in order to comply with a law that could not have been enforced against him in the first place?