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| ERIC PAUL ZAMORA/THE FRESNO BEE |
| Julia Faller, 20, an au pair from Germany who arrived in July to work for a Fresno family, holds a voter identification card she received in the mail after being solicited to register. |
Julia Faller is a serious person. She's honest, too. She would make a good voter.
In fact, she even has a Fresno County voter identification card.
But she can't vote -- not legally. She's not a U.S. citizen.
The story about how she got that card provides a sobering lesson about why voter fraud is a problem to take seriously.
It provides a glimpse into the shady dealings of professional signature gatherers and the risks posed by them. And it illustrates why Gov. Schwarzenegger was wrong to veto legislation two years ago that clamped down on bounty hunters who are paid up to $10 per signature.
Faller, 20, moved to Fresno in July from Heide, a small town north of Hamburg in Germany, to work as an au pair. Among her goals: improving her English.
After her English class at Cesar Chavez Adult School, Faller walks to Courthouse Park to board the bus that takes her back to northwest Fresno, where she lives with Peter and Renee Kinman.
At the park bus station, Faller became the object of unwanted attention.
"Every day this woman asks me to sign up to vote," Faller says, her words wrapped in an unmistakable German accent.
"I told her that I think I wasn't allowed because I had come here just a few months ago."
But the woman persisted, Faller says, and so did others at the park pushing voter registration cards.
Faller finally caved on Sept. 26 after the signature gatherer told the au pair that she would be helping her because she got money for every card.
Says Faller: "She said to sign, and she would check if I can vote."
Faller also says that the woman didn't tell her that she had to be an American citizen to register.
Nor did she mention that it was a felony to sign if she wasn't an American.
After registering, Faller says, the bounty hunter rewarded her with a candy bar.
Faller says she forgot about it until a voter identification card arrived at the Kinmans' home.
The card, proclaiming her a registered Republican, alarmed Renee Kinman because she knew that Faller wasn't eligible to vote.
"I'm worried that this is just the tip of the iceberg" with registration problems, says Kinman, who notified The Bee about Faller's experience.
This time, the safeguards worked.
According to Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar, the card sent to Faller acknowledged her registration pending verification by the Secretary of State's office.
But, because Faller's card wasn't completely filled out -- lacking either a driver's license or Social Security number -- the state rejected it.
Had she supplied a number, she might be allowed to vote on Tuesday.
Paid signature gatherers, Salazar says, "are one of the major problems in voter fraud because they often misrepresent what they're doing. They'll say, 'Do you want to sign a petition and then get people to sign a registration form.' "
Salazar says that one of the best ways to prevent fraud is to take money out of the process. But political parties, as well as interests trying to qualify state ballot propositions, rely on bounty hunters to drum up signatures.
Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation by Assembly Member Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, in 2006 that would have banned payment on a per-signature basis and tightened rules for proposition signatures.
"The prohibitions on per-signature payments will make it more difficult for grass-roots organizations to get the necessary signatures in the time allotted," Schwarzenegger said at the time.
Maybe the governor disagrees, but stricter oversight of voter registration is needed to protect against fraud.
And, as Salazar points out, it's a bad idea to risk identity theft by giving personal information to a stranger.
"Unless you know who the circulators are, voters should be cautious filling out a form that asks for your name, address, date of birth, phone and Social Security number," Salazar says.
He recommends registering at government venues such as the elections office, fire stations and libraries -- or downloading a form on-line and mailing it in.
Salazar says that while Faller shouldn't have signed the registration card, she did the right thing by telling what happened: "Usually people don't come forward. She can be helpful to ensure that appropriate action is taken."
He says that the case, including the name of the signature gatherer, has been forwarded to the Voter Fraud Unit of the Secretary of State's Office. Salazar declined to identify the woman, citing privacy laws.
At the least, this bounty hunter is on notice: Gaming the system could cost you a lot more than $10.
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