Why does this not surprise me?

The GOP has been bragging about getting nearly half of the new registrants in Oregon as the Democrats, but it appears as though even that number was inflated.

But apparently unknown at the time to Smith and other GOP officials, it soon began to emerge that some of those cards -- the number is not known -- were signed by young people who were deceived into registering as a Republican, or who may have registered as an independent or a Democrat and then had the registration switched to Republican by someone else before the card was turned in.

The registration forms were valid and newly registered voters received ballots. But some of them were the product of deceptive tactics, used on several college and university campuses around the state, by canvassers working for Sproul & Associates, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based company that was hired by the Republican National Committee to boost GOP registration in Oregon and several other states.

In interviews, students at Mt. Hood and Chemeketa community colleges, Western Oregon University and the University of Oregon, all told similar stories: They were approached on campus and asked to sign a petition, often urging lower automobile insurance rates for students, and then asked to sign or initial a second document, which turned out to be a voter registration card.

Many of the students were urged to mark Republican as their party affiliation; others were told to leave the party affiliation section blank but to put their initials next to Republican on that part of the form.

Edward Walsh, "Deceptive tactics inflate GOP voter registration", The Oregonian, October 30, 2004

This article is a must-read, detailing how the Republicans have systematically deceived young people into registering with their party to boost their numbers. Although this may have brought in a little more money for Sproul and helped the ego of GOP leaders, these young people are not going to vote for George W. Bush now that they realize they were intentionally duped by the Republicans.

Congratulations, then, to Sproul and Associates! They successfully created thousands of lifelong Democrats by turning off countless young voters to the GOP forever.