I’m growing more and more leary of paid signature gatherers of any sort — the industry seems to be rife with organizations who at a minimum are willing to look the other way regarding fraud to get the signature numbers they want, and employees who are more about getting paid than for doing their jobs by legal and ethical standards.

Here’s a story from the Los Angeles Times on some Republican voter fraud involved paid signature gathering:

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby’s arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.

If there ever was an initiative I’d sign to get on the ballot in California, it would be one to outlaw paid signature gathering for statewide initiatives and voter registration.