# YPM makes ACORN look like a bunch of pikers **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 18, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556 "2008-10-18T20:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556/1 "2008-10-18T20:53:41Z")
[Linky](http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fraud18-2008oct18,0,1216330.story?track=ntothtml) YPM, a voter registration group hired by the GOP, allegedly deceived Californian voters into registering as Republicans. From the linked article > [@](#): > > The 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 article (from the LA times) mentions there are investigations in Florida and Massachussettes. Understanding that this hasn’t had the press of ACORN and the allegations haven’t been vetted and spun, and leaving all bias inherent in my thread title aside,which is worse for our democracy, creating a potential for a fraudulent vote to be cast, or possibly preventing a legitimate vote from being cast? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556/2 "2008-10-18T23:20:22Z")
From the description of the tricks, I am really suprised people fall for this stuff. “Oh, just put ‘republican’ there, it’s just a formality.” No one thinks to call the police when they hear that kind of line? Well, I guess I myself _thought_ about it but didn’t actually _do_ it when someone did something similar to me. I signed a petition to have some thing or other put on the list of propositions that year, and then the girl who had asked me to sign flipped the clipboard over and asked me sign on the other side as well. (To my recollection, the other side was pink, leading to a natural assumption that this was just a second copy of the original that I had already signed.) She didn’t describe the piece of paper I was about to sign, she just said “Oh and, sign this blank as well.” Like it was just a matter of course. And I almost did, until at the last instant I happened to catch out of the corner of my eye the fact that the proposition at the top was a different proposition–one, I should add, which was exactly the opposite of the kind of propsition I would have wanted to sign. “Wait, what is this I’m signing?” “Oh it’s for another propsition,” and she proceeded to describe the proposition, no sign in her voice that she had been caught trying to trick me. I did think about getting police involved, and sometimes think I probably should have. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556/3 "2008-10-19T00:40:04Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > From the description of the tricks, I am really suprised people fall for this stuff. “Oh, just put ‘republican’ there, it’s just a formality.” Give some a badge or some sort of ID and some official-looking forms, and you will be amazed, genuinely amazed, at the percentage of ordinary, non-retarded people who will fall hook, line and sinker for almost anything. I could make a fortune as a con man if it wasn’t for the fact that I have scruples. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556/4 "2008-10-19T01:07:55Z")
I condemn what YPM is alleged to have done, but I can’t help but be somewhat amused by the outrage of some who object to being lied to but were willing to fraudulently declare themselves to be Republicans when they thought it wouldn’t affect them personally. > [@](#): > > Lydia Laws, a Palm Springs retiree, said she was angry to find recently that her registration had been switched from Democrat to Republican. > > Laws said the YPM staffer who instructed her to identify herself on a petition as a Republican assured her that it was a formality, and that her registration would not be changed. Later, a card showed up in the mail saying she had joined the GOP. > > "I said, ‘No, no, no. That’s not right,’ " Laws said. As for > [@parthenokinesis](#): > > which is worse for our democracy, creating a potential for a fraudulent vote to be cast, or possibly preventing a legitimate vote from being cast? I’d say the latter. Both affect the integrity of the entire system, but denying a qualified voter from participating directly impacts one of the fundamental rights of citizenship for that person. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556/5 "2008-10-21T01:53:57Z")
And now the man in charge has been [arrested](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081021/pl_nm/us_california_votefraud) > [@](#): > > Mark Jacoby is accused of fraudulently registering himself to vote at a Los Angeles address where he no longer resides – his boyhood home – to meet a state law requiring all signature gatherers to register or be eligible to vote in California. I know the Obama campaign is trying to keep the high road, but this is a perfect riposte to the GOP mindless talking points, the same way they’ve started smacking aires around with G Gordon Liddy. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ypm-makes-acorn-look-like-a-bunch-of-pikers/468556/6 "2008-10-21T02:10:47Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > …I did think about getting police involved, and sometimes think I probably should have… I probably would threaten to call the police, and then lewdly suggest that perhaps…just\* perhaps\*, mind you…I could be persuaded otherwise. Either way, of course, I stll call the police: out of spite, or out of principle.