Voter Recruiter Gets 16 Months for Fraud

A voter registration “bounty hunter,” who signed up four noncitizens last year, was sentenced Monday to 16 months in state prison after pleading no contest to charges of voter fraud, the district attorney said.

Jaime Campa, 21, a undocumented immigrant living in Los Angeles, was sentenced by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler. Campa pleaded no contest in a pretrial hearing on Feb. 14.

Campa’s prosecution arose from an investigation initiated last year by the city’s registrar-recorder and conducted jointly by the secretary of state’s election division and the district attorney’s office, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Randall Baron, who prosecuted the case.

Baron said Campa registered the noncitizens while working for Steve Martinez, a Los Angeles political activist. Martinez paid Campa an hourly wage and $1 per completed voter registration card. In all, Campa was paid between $300 and $400 to register voters, primarily in the 39th Assembly District, which covers portions of the northeast Valley, Baron said.

Baron said the district attorney’s Special Investigations Division has prosecuted about half a dozen individuals on voter fraud charges this year, somewhat more than usual.

“There’s been a little more attention paid to it this year,” Baron said. “It’s become a higher priority in the public’s eye and we are responding to that.”