A rather strange video from something called TheSingingNewsNetwrk. Discussion of Mark Jacoby and registration flipping begins about 1 minute in.

I try to keep crime-blogging and politics separate, but I suppose I'll be accused of waxing political no matter how I frame this story. So be it. It's a political season to end all seasons, so a story like this ending up in a crime blog was inevitable.

Mark Jacoby, the head of Young Political Majors (YPM) was arrested this weekend in Ontario, California. According to FoxNews.com's "Elections" site, Jacoby was charged with a felony for "allegedly lying about his address in the state in order to vote illegally."

California authorities believe Jacoby registered to vote in Los Angeles with the address of the home in which he grew up. He apparently hasn't lived there for quite some time. If you give false info on your voter registration card in Cali (and probably most places, I haven't checked the federal laws) it is considered perjury. Mark Jacoby could face 3 years in prison.

Freelance journalist and blogger Lindsay Beyerstein explains a bit more about why Jacoby's arrest is significant:

"Mark Jacoby, the president of a GOP signature-gathering firm accused of tricking California voters into registering as Republicans under the guise of signing a petition to keep pedophiles in jail, has been arrested in Ontario, CA on suspicion of voter fraud.

"Jacoby's paid signature-gatherers are accused of actively deceiving Californians while YPM was under contract to the Republican Party.

"An astonishing eighty percent of a random sample of voters registered by YPM in California told the LA Times that they had been tricked into registering as Republicans. YPM has registered 70,000 voters as Republicans in California in this election cycle alone. "

The California Republican Party says that Jacoby's arrest is "politically motivated." Fox News quoted a statement from the CRP that read in part, "The fact that these charges are being leveled against an individual operating in a highly-contested area of California, and the significant gap between recent allegations and the charges we've seen today suggests that this is politically motivated."

The CRP also directed fire towards California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen. The CRP stated that Bowen "is using her office to play politics with the public's perception of political parties. This is inappropriate at least, and an abuse of her office and a willing suspension of her duties at worst."

Jacoby has been accused of sketchiness before. In Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & why They'll Steal the Next One Too (unless We Stop Them), published in 2007, author Mark Crispin Miller wrote about "Young Political Majors LLC, a wee firm owned and managed by Mark Jacoby (who, one summer's day, turned up at the Board of Elections office in Gainesville [FL] with 1,200 voter registration cards, of which 510 were from Floridians who had switched to the GOP)." YPM, wrote Miller, "turned out be be employed by something called JSM Inc., which was in turn employed by Arno Political Associates, a rightist propaganda powerhouse whose clients have included Reagan/Bush, Bush/Quayle, Phillip Morris, R. J. Reynolds, Occidental Petroleum [...] and Wal-Mart."

Jacoby's problems may be metastasizing. YPM LLC was recently mentioned in a post on RipOffReport.com. While the "report" in question was signed off by a basically anonymous "joe" (that screen name is popular with anonymous types), and should be viewed with some skepticism, it may also be the tip of the iceberg for Jacoby's Titanic. A portion of the Ripoff Report:

"my self and many others are victims of this mans games. he will hire you with the impression he is a professional in his field of petitioning. big promises of money are rebutled with 'validity' you only get paid 50 to 70 percent even if you do everything you are told. he keeps the extra money and you do get paid well but he gets paid very well. forget the last check. he will get you to work extra hard telling you there is a pay increase per signature collected for his petitions, he will leave town to go work some other town or state and not pay you. he is very good at this , even if you wanted to take him to court you cant becuase he has not real business address , no home or vehicle, he lives out of hotels and rental cars. if your work for this man."

Not long now till election day. It's getting intense, no matter which side you're on.

No arraignment date has been set for Mark Jacoby. A judge set his bail at $50,000.

[FOXNews.com Elections]