Veteran Latino-rights advocate charged with voter fraud

Felony charges have been filed and an arrest warrant issued for a well-known Orange County political activist suspected of committing election and voter registration fraud, the California secretary of State's office announced Wednesday.

Investigators in the agency's election-fraud unit said Nativo V. Lopez, 57, of Santa Ana leased office space in Boyle Heights and registered to vote using that address although he lived with his family in Orange County. They also say Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Assn., cast an illegal ballot in L.A. in the 2008 presidential primary.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which is working with the secretary of State, charged Lopez with four felonies: fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. A warrant was issued for his arrest and bail was set at $10,000. The offenses carry penalties of up to three years in prison.

Lopez is a longtime Latino political-rights advocate in Orange County who served on the Santa Ana school board. Lopez has been a vocal advocate for Latino voting rights and supported immigrant amnesty and allowing undocumented workers to have driver's licenses. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

In 1997, the Orange County district attorney opened a criminal investigation into allegations that a group in which Lopez was a leader registered some clients to vote before they took the oath of citizenship. No criminal charges were brought, and Lopez demanded an apology from critics.

-- Dan Weikel and Shelby Grad

Comments

[longa50]

My son just registered to vote in Florida. You can now register to vote using your Sam's Club, Costco, etc. photo iD as proof of citizenship, or a utility bill in your name. In 1991 I had to show a drivers license, birth certificate, social security card, deed for my home or HUD 1 form to register my kids in public school. i honestly believe we have a sitting president that was elected by voter fraud.

[longa50]

My son just registered to vote in Florida. You can now register to vote using your Sam's Club, Costco, etc. photo iD as proof of citizenship, or a utility bill in your name. In 1991 I had to show a drivers license, birth certificate, social security card, deed for my home or HUD 1 form to register my kids in public school. i honestly believe we have a sitting president that was elected by voter fraud.

[Hako]

I left the Democratic party because of their refusal to support existing laws, and for coddling and favoring illegal immigrants rights. Yeah, I live in California, where you can find "sanctuary cities" like San Francisco. How can a place be a "sanctuary" when anyone, even criminals, can go there? Now the state is collapsing entirely. But don't you dare say that millions of illegals and their dependents had anything to do with it. That would be racist.

[Kevin]

Unfortunately, one can only come up with one conclusion regarding this criminal act. This is not, by far, an isolated incident. As the old addage goes: When you see one roach, you can bet there are 10,000 hiding that you can't see. ACORN is the biggest roach of all, yet Obama will never let his little community organizer group go. This kettle is going to boil over, with the likes that the United States has never seen. If Congress does not investigate ACORN, and all its little nuts, then god help the poor guy who gets hired by ACORN to commit even more fraud. ACORN is using the downtrodden to do their dirty work. Now lets not go feeling too sorry for the little guy, because he/she still is responsible for his actions. But just the same, it's sad...............

[Eric]

Isn't the whole purpose of allowing so many Mexicans to sneak into this country so they make a large Democratic political block? The only other people who would want us to become a Latin American country would be China or Russia, so they won't have any problem dominating the globe. Our economy will collapse, we won't be able to afford a military, and they'll have a free hand to do whatever they want with the Western Hemisphere. It's pretty simple. The only real question is, Why would American politicians be so happy to summon the end of our nation?

[The Viking]

You know, I can dig that Obama very well may have won freely and fairly in an uncontested vote. America's been locked into a cultural pissing-contest-to-the-death since Clinton's second term, and a lot - if not the bulk - of the navel-gazing 'swing voters' were probably sick and tired of being sick and tired, and figured, 'What the hell - let's see what happens if we shift gears and buy into the hopey-changey' thing.' But I don't buy into the 53-47 split, or whatever the hell it was. There have been enough documented cases of voter fraud to indicate that, under the surface and most likely not being perused or just being ignored, this was probably the most corrupt vote result in American history. Again, Obama may have won on an even playing field. But there are enough entities out there who don't care a whit about following the law of the land or will of the people if it doesn't fit into their own personal agendas. Their means and motives are essentially formulated and executed from the crotch, with no regard beyond their own skewed perspective of self-empowerment, and that is the very reason why they should hold no right or authority to vote and influence the affairs of the rest of this Republic.

[TheVin]

So what are you going to do about it? Nothing,,,not a thing,,,nothing can stop the demise of America,,,Nothing,,,except perhaps a well armed militia....im just saying,,,its in the costituition for those voters who have read it....

[Winthrop Lyman]

My New England great-great-great grandfather Amasa Lyman led the first organized American colonization of Southern California. When he arrived in July of 1847 these wide open spaces were briefly called Mexican Territory and inhabited by just a few thousand Mexican ex-soldiers, priests, and ranchers. He bought the 100,000 acre Racho Del San Bernadino from Los Angeles mayor Don Antonio Lugo (the Supelvedas once had a share in it too) for $77,000.00 and produced an economic powerhouse. We knew all the Mexican families here at that time because there were so few of them, and many of them were our friends.
The claims of the leaders of the newly arrived Mexican peasant masses from south of the border to the economic powerhouse their ancestors had no hand in creating provides lively amusement to those of us that have actually been here for the last 6 generations. Claims of Mexicans being "native" here are obviously bogus as their Mexican ancestors never lived in Alta California (except for our friends and their descendants) and because the so-called "Indian's" or so-called "Native American's" ancestors are only native to Asian Mongolia via the Bering land bridge as genetic science has proven. Trying to take what is not yours is bad form. We made the desert blossom as the rose after buying it fair and square. What have you done with it? The Englishman Sir Francis Drake claimed California as New England (Nova Albion) in 1579 and we have made good on our claim. When the unrelenting forces of peasant demographics have finally rested it from our hands it will be a depressed, polluted, over-crowded ruin of its former self. Just watch.

[Kurtiss]

>>>Lopez demanded an apology from critics.<<<

We're not sorry for criticizing you.

And this is about 20 years too late. The great Orange County representative Bob Dornan lost re-election by less than the number of illegal votes cast for his Democrat challenger. All of America has suffered as Congress tilted leftward. All it will take is one election in which illegals make the difference in a significant number of races, and the radical left will have sufficient votes to legalize illegal voting and cement themselves into power FOREVER.

[longa50]

Obviously it is time to take the country back. I've been a fed up Democrat, and a fed up Republican. Take note Zogby and Rusmussen polling. I'm totally fed up with both parties so don't forecast the drop in registered republicans means anything at all. I reregistered as a nonpartiison the day after Juan Mccain stole the primairies in Florida from fraud. We need a law making it mandatory any congressperson must retire at age 70. The Democrats are to dumb to change voter registration so they stay stable, and vote race and handouts. We have the Chicago mafia machine running the white house and congress, and the unions, and the lawyers. Just watch the Chicago 10:00pm news on your cable and see what the country will be in the future. Total corruption and anarcy. It's time to vote out all the lawyers including el presidente obama., and take the country back to the people. The courts are out of control. We need to bring back common sense, and the rule of law to this country. Bottom line is illegal is illegal. Somebody uphold the laws, or either the American people will stand up, or anarchy will prevail. Show me your birth certifiacte Obama you fraud. As far as I'm concerned Al Quada has taken over the presidency and their surrogute has the uiltimate plan to destroy America as we knew it.

[Osamas Pajamas]

Wouldn't be so bad if the illegals split their votes 50-50 for Dems & Republicans....

[Luke]

Thanks for your 6:19 response, John, on my 5:25 post. I see I've made my point. BTW, I did pick a side...just read it again. P.S. If you had to pick (and you have to), which do you prefer, "Press 1 for English", or "Press 1 for Spanish"? If you choose to only go with companies that speak English, its like going off the grid and living in a solar panel-clad dome in the desert, digging your own well, trying to grow your own vegetables and skinning your own armadillos for food and clothing. On the flipside, your choice to sacrificially cut off an otherwise useful service to make your point is somewhat heroic, I guess, but also playing into your "opponents" hands in a way. Laying down, not enduring, and succumbing is exactly what is expected of you. If it were a handful of firms, they would be the exception and they would be buried by public outrage, but it's not, it's now built into the infrastructure, and to anyone born in the 80's or later it's business as usual. I'd get that card back, I hear Home Depot's got some good deals going...

[Cliff Olin]

Nativo Lopez made a mistake when he registered in L.A., but that hardly justifies the inflammatory article in the Times or the harsh federal charges against him He did not send operatives to intimidate voters in front of polling stations as the Republicans did in Ohio 2004, nor did he disenfranchise thousands of voters by purging the voting rolls of felons and people with the same names as those felons, as the Republicans did in Florida in 2000.

No doubt we will find out if Mr. Lopez is guilty of the charges, or if the matter was a misunderstanding, which appears likely, given Mr. Lopez's extensive knowledge of election laws and voter registration requirements. Many who post here jump to conclusions without knowing the facts. In addition, though none of this is alleged, and there is zero evidence to support it, the immigrant-haters, in a case of "Don't confuse me with the facts.", resuscitate charges that Lopez and Hermandad Mexicana committed voter fraud by registering non-citizens, though all that was thoroughly investigated, and the State had to end up apologizing to Mr. Lopez because the charges were found to be groundless. The same for the Loretta Sanchez election, and presumably also her re-election 5 more times, which some here say came about through voter fraud: i.e., the evil illegals at it again, right?

It is a strange quirk of human nature that allows citizens here to hate the very people who do most of the hardest, dirtiest, most dangerous work that makes possible the middle-class lifestyle here in Southern California. It is a kind of blindness fueled by racism that allows the haters to ignore that our landscaping, our inexpensive meat, fruit, and vegetables, the care of our elderly and little children, the cleaning of tens of thousand of homes and buildings, etc., all are l mostly done by people living in the shadows, the invisible, the undocumented immigrants so easy to villify yet so essential to the lives of very people that denounce them.

Cliff Olin

[Mark]

Half my heritage is from the European migration at the beginning of the 20th Century. My people were murdered for speaking their minds when they first arrived. So they learned English and melted into America. That waive of immigration was permitted so that my ancestors might serve in menial jobs in the factories and mines owned by the American Patrician Class whose descendants make up the alumni roles of Harvard and Yale. Now that the factories and mines have gone, I and my people serve no useful purpose to the owners of America. Why would I care if America is flooded with Mexicans. I love it.

[Jim Norris]

It's ok to clall a sitting president a liar, it's fine to defame a former president by claiming he slept in meetings....but, catch a liberal socialist actually commiting voter fraud and all the libs can say is "he didn't mean to"...or it was a mistake, but no bitg deal....bull! This is one example of actions taken by someone supposing to be standing for something - cheating to try and take what isn't thier's ......grown up Americans, we do not own anyone an appology, a lifestyle or the ability to make our nation into a mirror image of thier homeland....God Bless the USA!!!

[Capn Jack]

Cliff, I want to thank you for my first belly laugh this morning. I actually spewed some of my coffee on the screen. “He did not send operatives to intimidate voters in front of polling stations as the Republicans did in Ohio 2004, nor did he disenfranchise thousands of voters by purging the voting rolls of felons and people with the same names as those felons, as the Republicans did in Florida in 2000.” Have you been living under a rock? Those Felons in Florida, with the assistance of ACORN, had signed up to vote which in Florida is against the law. Secondly did you perhaps miss the polling places around the country during the last election that ACORN posted thugs from the Black Panthers? Or maybe you missed the 39 cases of fraudulent voter registrations charges brought against ACORN. Before you toss out ridiculous charges against the Republicans, perhaps you should educate yourself with the fraudulent tactics of the Democrats and you might want to start with the Chicago machine and their tatics.

[Gregory Kay]

It comes down to the law, and we're constantly told that we're a "propositional nation," that is, we're SUPPOSED to be a country of laws, not men, correct? The law forbids foreigners from entering the United States without going through the required legal processes. If you come across the border without checking in as required by law, you have violated the law; you are, by every definition, a criminal, guilty not only of violating immigration law, but also of conspiracy if you planned your entry as part of a group of people. If someone assists illegal immigrants, i.e., people engaged in breaking the law -- ANY law -- those helpers are guilty of one or more of the following: being an accessory, aiding and abetting, and/or conspiracy, and, quite possibly, the RICO or other anti-organized crime statutes. Hopefully, when it considers the vote fraud, the Grand Jury thinks of that, and adds some or all of those charges to it. Start treating illegal immigration exactly like what it is -- a crime -- and you have the perfect immigration reform right there!

[fred astaire]

Gee, Cliff Olin must know this fellow personally to make such defined staements. have all your facts straight from knowledge Cliff?

[Carney]

Somehow America managed to make its beds, clean its offices,
bus its tables, pick its fruit, pack its meat, mow its lawns, construct its buildings and raise its kids before this tsunami of legal and illegal aliens was allowed into our beautiful country by the traitors in Washington.

So the constant propaganda we hear that these immigrants are somehow "vital" to our economy and way of life is a deliberate lie, intended to keep the flood rushing in at all costs, to permanently change America into a politically and demographically Third World country.

It's not only destructive and unnecessary, it's NOT inevitable and CAN be stopped.

[Michael]

I can't believe an honest activist would lie & cheat on election day. Hey I wonder what Political party this fraud is connected with? Hmmmmm. I know if the article doesn't say then it's a DemocRAT.
WAKE UP LEGAL AMERICANS while we still have some freedom left.

[with all due respect]

Does no one see a connection with MAPA's call for supporting the boycott of the census? The issues are redistricting, electoral college numbers, and lots of federal money and where it goes. Nativo has hit a nerve and these trumped up charges, from something he allegedly did IN 2006, shows how vulnerable that nerve is. As for the boycott: it is virtuous in a Gandian sense. Think about it this way: a full count census without comprehensive immigration reform is tantamount to restoring the 3/5 claus of the US Constitution of the 18th & 19th Century. Look closely at who will benefit from the full count, how they will benefit, and measure their present intransigence on holding Obama to his word for full and comprehensive immigration reform accomplished within the first year. The boycott is moral, just and a needed arm twisting for those only too willing to betray those they claim to represent...

[lyn]

The debate that this article gave admittance to is miscast as being about immigration,

No. The subject being argued is whether the leading political elites will enforce the law of the land about who has the right, or the permission of our government, to reside within our national borders.

If the leading elite continues to ignore the law of the land our nation shall be no more. Our posterity shall suffer the failure for we will have lost our culture, our history of self governance, our home and hearth, even our language.

[adamrussell]

Wow. I dont agree with his politics but charging him with voter fraud for registering to vote at his office address is really stretching it. This DA must have an axe to grind.

[dood]

It figures... I'm not surprised.

[Sethy]

When we import people from corrupt societies, we import their corruption. (More corruption that the one we already have.)

No wonder Obama wants citizenship for this kind of people. They match his "idea" for the US: Total Africanization. Next time do not elect Africans.