No Evidence to Back Claim of Voter Fraud: Registrar : Politics: Report disputes Republican charges of illegal registration in central Orange County.

The registrar of voters office found no evidence of voter fraud after reviewing charges by local Republican legislators that Democrats in central Orange County may have registered voters illegally, according to a report released Saturday.

The results of the investigation, which did not differ from a preliminary finding released earlier in the week by Donald Tanney, the registrar of voters, showed that of 38 possible duplicate voter registrations, only 10 will require a “follow-up contact” by the registrar’s office.

“We found no evidence . . . which would indicate an attempt to vote more than once in any election,” Tanney stated in a letter to Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Garden Grove).

Earlier this month, Conroy and 10 other GOP legislators submitted a list of 38 possible duplicate voter registrations in which the names varied slightly but the birth dates and residential addresses were identical.

The Republicans also questioned the validity of 171 registered voters who listed Santa Ana homeless shelters as their residences, and Tanney said only nine of those voters had any voting history.

Tanney did not agree to Conroy’s request that he purge from voter rolls all of those who are illegally registered in the 69th Assembly District--the area where Republicans suspect Democrats of engaging in voter fraud.

However, he said his office was attempting to modify its computer program so it could detect voter registrations with identical addresses. Possible duplications are now caught by checking full names, birth dates and birth places.

Conroy said that while he had not received a commitment to have the rolls purged before the end of the month, he hoped the county would “do its level best to have it done” before the Nov. 8 election.

The focus on voter fraud, and Conroy’s suggestion that volunteer poll watchers be assigned to the 69th District on Election Day, alarmed Democrats because the area is predominantly Democratic and Latino. Last week, Latino political activists asked the U.S. Justice Department to officially monitor voting on Election Day to ensure that Latino voters would not be intimidated.