Accusations come on the heels of Republican John McCain's fraud attacks against community organisation Acorn

This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

While John McCain has attacked the liberal US community group Acorn for alleged voter registration fraud, the Republican party continues to employ operatives facing fraud accusations including one who faces criminal perjury charges.

Democrats are accusing McCain of hypocrisy after the weekend arrest of Mark Jacoby, a California Republican operative. Jacoby has been accused of voter registration fraud after registering himself to vote at two homes where he did not live.

The arrest comes after McCain and running mate Sarah Palin attempted to tie Barack Obama's campaign to Acorn, playing up a federal investigation of the group's voter registration tactics in several states.

"Over the past few weeks we've heard John McCain denounce voter fraud on the campaign trail while the [Republican party] hurls false attacks, so the question is: where is the outrage now?" Democratic spokesman Karen Finney asked yesterday.

Jacoby is the second Republican operative revealed this week to possess a questionable record on voter registration. Nathan Sproul – who has been investigated by Congress for allegedly destroying voter registration forms and intimidating voters – got paid $175,000 by the McCain camp this year.

"The Republicans [and] the McCain campaign have been hammering away for weeks with the same old Washington politics," Democratic party lawyer Joe Sandler said in a statement.

"In fact, none of the charges that they've been talking about have actually panned out."

Democrats called on McCain to cut his ties to both voter-registration operatives, citing frequent Republican attacks on Acorn. Obama represented Acorn as an attorney years before beginning his political career, and the group has endorsed him this year, but his camp has denied any link to Acorn's voter-registration activities.

The California Republican party told a local newspaper yesterday that their contract with Jacoby ended this week, after the state's voter registration period expired. No announcement has been made about the renewal of the contract.