I think it's good that the program was shut down. Anyone has the right to vote and to register, but if you are registering people illegally then you should be punished for it. It's not a matter of partisanship, it's a matter of ethics and the law.

I recently video taped a speech by Debra Bowen. I was questioned by her to staff to make sure that it would not be used to support any candidate or issue in this election. Unlike Katherine Harris or Ken Blackwell who were part of Bush's campaigns, Debra Bowen is make great efforts to keep partisanship out of her office during the elections. You are aware that voter registration in Ventura ended yesterday.

We spoke with the Ventura Elections Divison and have been told that they were not shut down in fact they were given more forms yesterday. So this release is bogus. They have registered more than 11,000 people in the county since they got started and that was after the county already went Democrat.

Go look at Timm Herdt's blog. YOU ARE 100 PERCENT WRONG ONCE AGAIN.

You have zero credibility.

No, he's actually 100% right. Here's any eyewitness account provided by none other than Miss Katie Teague on another thread over on Brian Dennert's blog:

By Katie Teague on October 21, 2008 7:57 AM

"Timm Herdt's blog today has a YouTube video of the guy - he's pretty odious.

I was at Von's speaking to a Republican Federated lady registering people to vote when I saw Phil Schmidt of the Elections Office shutting down the Democratic table for voter Registration. Evidently the boys were underage - somebody phoned in a complaint. The Federated lady wanted it to be clear it wasn't her. The boys seemed suprised. The guy in Timm Herdt's video was very hostile. The Federated lady was very sweet."

Then Phil Schmit is also wrong and has just interfered in a voter registration effort. The law says that a "deputy registrar of voters" -- in other words, someone who works for a county elections office -- must be 18. It does not prohibit a high school student from passing out registration cards to people who are over 18, collecting them and turning them over to elections officials.

Phil is a Republican interfering in a Democratic voter registration effort.

Ooops.

I am quite sure that Phil Schmidt was acting in his official capacity as Head of the Elections Office/Registrar of Voters and complying with the law when he shut down the underage voter registration operation in Ventura, rather than acting as a Republican and interfering with a Democratic voter registration effort.

Now you're just being ridiculous.

Phil knows the law huh? Just like Joe Justin, Strickland's campaign manager, knows the law. It's illegal to send out campaign mail without an identifier and it's perfectly legal for a teen to register somebody to vote.

For the facts, look no further than the Secretary of State’s official “Guide to Voter Registration in California,� published during the tenure of Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. Under the section, “Who Can Register People to Vote� it reads:

“You do not need to be a registered voter, or a particular age, or even a resident of the area, in order to register voters.�

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/guidetovr_1006.pdf

Phil, you've got some explaining to do.

I was a republican, but I can't take McCain's creepy campaign. He will do anything to win, he even risks the safety of our country by putting Palin on the ticket.

He wants to talk about Acorn while the GOP is trying to purge new voters from registering. One of his team was just arrested for changing voter registration from dem to repub.

I've had enough of being lied to by Bush and I can't take 4 more years of the same phony trickle down economics.

GOP Thugs,

Did you even read Steve's thread intro? You're way off topic here.

The bottom line is there is a difference of opinion about what the State law says in regard to underage kids registering voters. Like many other things, it will be resolved by the legal experts or the courts.

Stay tuned...

Hmm...today in the Star with regards to Stevarino's "Big Vote Bust"

"Both Schmit and the state Republican party's Sacramento lawyer, Chuck Bell, cited Elections Code section 1109, which says only that "any person who is a registered voter qualifies for appointment as a deputy registrar of voters."

Schmit said he understood state election laws to prohibit minors from passing out or collecting the forms, which are widely available in public offices.

But neither Schmit nor Bell could point to any law that prohibits minors or nonvoters from distributing or collecting the mail-in registration forms, which replaced the need to register with an official deputy registrar in California in 1976.

Phil Schmidt is resigning in January. Do you think his blowing this had anything to do with it? To bad he can't go today.

No, I don't Brian. But, I do think your blowing it out of proportion has a lot to do with your blatant bias and spin-mastering.

Why don't you update your blog to show the clear reporting that there wasn't laws being violated? Do you even read Timm Herdt's reporting?

I dare you to go into detail about Herdt's reporting on this issue and tell us where you stand.