Mystery Solved

Regarding the questionable registration of college kids in Florida, at any rate.

Here's the story:

Local elections officials said suspicious registration forms and questionable tactics also have been coming from a group working in Florida for the Republican National Committee. That group, Sacramento-based Arno Political Consultants, also is pledging to cooperate with investigators.

The company was hired for $136,000 to boost the number of registered Republicans in Florida. Owner Bill Arno said the work was conducted by a subcontractor who worked ``at an arms length.'' The subcontractor, Mark Jacoby, a California man who travels the county fulfilling voter registration contracts, did not return repeated calls seeking comment. His assignments took him to the Gainesville and Tampa areas. Arno insists his subcontractor did not operate fraudulently.

So, it appears the RNC may have hired someone to "boost Republican registration" and thus we find people with fake petitions re-registering college students as Republicans. Not to alter the numbers in the state - just to fulfill the terms of a contract. Petty enough for plausibility.

However, the consequences can nevertheless be quite severe:

Elections supervisors said the alleged scams could disenfranchise many students who are newly registered in their college counties but have already received absentee ballots from the counties of their permanent residence. If these students now submit the absentee ballot, supervisors will be forced to throw it out because only the most recent registration is active.