Orange County Register

Laguna Niguel lawyer Orly Taitz, who’s gained a national following for efforts to prove Barack Obama’s presidency is illegitimate, has qualified to run for California secretary of state, said Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley.

In launching her campaign to be the state’s top elections official, Taitz is alleging that fellow Republican candidate Damon Dunn, a former NFL player living in Irvine, is ineligible to seek the GOP nomination.

Taitz told me this morning that she’s running “to clean up the fraud we all have seen in the 2008 election. It is important to bring legitimacy to elections. And I will be fighting to ensure the California corporations are not overburdened by regulations.”

Taitz has seen at least three lawsuits thrown out in which she’s attempted to prove that Obama is not a natural-citizen, alleging he may have been born in Kenya and that even if he was born in the United States, having a Kenyan father disqualified him. She was sanctioned $20,000 for misconduct by one court, with the fine upheld by an appeals court on Monday.

One of her failed lawsuits asked Secretary of State Debra Bowen to investigate Obama’s qualifications to be president. Taitz has repeatedly criticized Bowen for not verifying Obama status as a natural-born citizen. Bowen, a Democrat, is expected to win reelection.

Kelley told me he had looked at some of the allegations against Dunn that Taitz had filed with his office, and could not substantiated them. He said he then forward Taitz’s complaint to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

Kelley said that Taitz filed a complaint with his office, “55 or 60 pages” long. Among the allegations was that Dunn was registered as a Democrat within the last 12 months, which would disqualify him to seek the GOP nomination, Kelley said.

Kelley said that Dunn has been registered as a Republican in Orange County since March 17, 2009 – just short of the 12-month mark given the March 12 filing deadline.

Taitz alleged that Dunn had been registered as a Democrat in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, Kelley said. But he said he could find no record of Dunn registered to vote in those counties.

Click here to see the copy of the complaint posted on Taitz’s Web site.

I’ll continue to update this story. I’m hoping to get in touch Dunn.