Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595

A private voter-registration organization with offices in several key battleground states has been accused of misrepresentation, tearing up registration forms filled out by Democrats, and misleading potential voters to register as Republicans.

Voters Outreach of America — an organization reportedly run by Nathan Sproul, the former head of the Arizona Republican Party — has run registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada. These registration drives are often run under the name "America Votes," which is a problem, since America Votes is an actual nonpartisan political organization.

"Voters Outreach is not in any way, shape or form associated with us. They called themselves America Votes when they were registering voters," said Carrie Sandstedt, the Nevada director of America Votes. "We've actually sent out a letter to Sproul & Associates [Sproul's Arizona-based political consulting firm] asking them to stop calling themselves America Votes."

The letter, written by America Votes President Cecile Richards, accuses Sproul & Associates of running a registration drive in Nevada under the name "Voters Outreach for America (a.k.a. 'America Votes')" and of "destroying registration forms completed by Democrats." In Nevada, Sproul & Associates employed as many as 300 part-time workers to register voters outside of malls, grocery stores and government buildings. One employee said he witnessed a supervisor rip up and throw away registration forms filled out by Democrats.

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595

State and federal officials said they were aware of allegations that Voters Outreach of America failed to register Democrats and were trying to determine if any laws might have been broken.

Nathan Sproul of Sproul & Associates in Chandler, Ariz., told The Associated Press that there was no truth to the accusations by Eric Russell, who he called a disgruntled employee who was fired last month.

Russell, a former Voters Outreach of America employee in Las Vegas, said he witnessed his supervisor shred eight to 10 Democratic registration forms from prospective voters. Russell could not recall his supervisor's name.

Russell acknowledged he was angry at Voters Outreach for not paying him and his girlfriend hundreds of dollars for work they said they did registering voters.

"They held our paychecks," said Russell, who called himself a registered Republican. "Who wouldn't be disgruntled if some lady told you she wasn't going to pay you? That doesn't take away from the fact that I saw them rip up the forms."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/10/13/politics1629EDT0129.DTL

In what appears to be the most toxic effort yet in this election to steal the rights and voices of voters by the Republican Party, GOP-funded Voters Outreach of America has reportedly trashed numerous voter registration forms in Nevada and other states. Buzzflash is all over this. According to other blog sources, there are records of this going on by Voter Outreach in Oregon and West Virginia. There are KLAS-TV in Nevada,

"Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.

Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.

The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at Democrats. The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America.

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

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http://www.alternet.org/election04/2004/10/002569.html