Why did Republican Party hire voter registration firm with dubious ties?
By John Romano, Times Columnist In Print: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
They were right, I was wrong.
They knew better, I knew nothing.
When I recently criticized the state's Republican leaders for chasing nonexistent voter fraud, I should have bowed to their insider knowledge.
After all, they were the ones paying $1.33 million to a company that has apparently turned in phony voter registration forms across Florida.
And to think I doubted their sincerity.
In case you missed it, the Republican Party of Florida fired a vendor last week after it was discovered that potentially hundreds of incorrect registration forms had been submitted in at least 10 counties around the state.
To be fair, no one has accused the Republican Party of trying to tilt election results with these phantom voters. The suspicion is that workers for Strategic Allied Consulting were more interested in their employee evaluations than the presidential election.
"I am assuming these were turned in by an employee trying to justify his $12 an hour," said Susan Bucher, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections who first alerted state officials to suspicious-looking applications.
The problem is being blamed on a handful of rogue Strategic employees, although that doesn't quite explain why such a large number of counties were involved.
Which brings us to the larger question:
Why was the Republican Party paying gobs of money to a startup company linked to a somewhat colorful history of voter fraud accusations?
Formed just a few months ago, Strategic Allied Consulting has already earned millions for voter registration drives around the country.
Nice work if you can get it, right?
Well, it turns out Strategic is the brainchild of famed Republican consultant Nathan Sproul. And Sproul explained to the Los Angeles Times last week that the RNC requested he create a new company because Republicans did not want the baggage of Sproul's previous voter registration companies.
Back in 2004, a Sproul company earned a reported $8 million for voter registration drives before George W. Bush's re-election.
The company was also accused of misleading potential voters and of destroying applications from Democrats in several states. During a congressional hearing years later, it was pointed out that not only did Bush's Department of Justice fail to thoroughly investigate those accusations, but that Sproul was a guest at the White House at Christmastime.
It's important to point out that Sproul has adamantly denied wrongdoing. But it's interesting to note that he happily acknowledges his companies are hired to attract Republican voters.
And that's perfectly legal. Democrats also cater their voter registration drives to their likely constituents. Or have you forgotten the ACORN scandal?
But here's the difference:
This is not simply an issue of partisan voter drives. Rather, it's the wisdom of Republicans hiring a firm with a checkered past and hiding behind a new name.
For a party that has passed laws making it more difficult to vote, that seems disingenuous. For a party that sued the federal government over access to potential voter rolls, that seems two-faced.
For a party that has been shouting about voter fraud, that seems hypocritical.
[Last modified: Oct 01, 2012 09:30 PM]
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/why-did-republican-party-hire-voter-registration-firm-with-dubious-ties/1254336
Dissecting the GOP’s ‘in-person voting-fraud’ fraud
11:20 am October 1, 2012, by Jay
And so it continues: Republicans have yet to identify any evidence anywhere in the country of attempts to alter election outcomes through in-person voting fraud.
None.
Yet in the alternative universe that too many of them occupy — the same universe in which Mitt Romney is up 10 points in “unskewed” polling — they are somehow absolutely certain that it occurs, and these supposed “small-government” types are equally certain that new regulations and state bureaucracies all across the country are necessary to prevent it.
This completely imaginary “problem” has acquired great credence on the right because it is so useful. First, it appears to confirm their vague fear that they must be victims of some nefarious plot — somehow involving poor people who are being manipulated against them — to steal elections and thus power. That sense of emotional confirmation is all the evidence that they need, and conservative media are eager to provide it.
Second — whether by intention or happy circumstance — the story offers GOP politicians an excuse to create new and completely unnecessary obstacles to voting by those who do not possess government identification. In Pennsylvania, for example, the state officially estimated that some 759,000 perfectly eligible voters did not possess and identification of the type required by a new state law.
And in Ohio, Republicans are in court insisting that provisional ballots that were cast in the wrong precinct because of mistakes by polling workers must be tossed out and not counted. in other words, through no fault of their own, legally registered voters who did everything by the book would be stripped of their constitutional right to vote. Only a cynic would suggest that the GOP position is driven by the fact that such mistakes occur far more often in more Democratic urban areas, where precincts are much smaller and tightly drawn, making confusion more likely. It’s not an insignificant problem — in 2008, the state tossed 14,355 such ballots, Bloomburg reports.
In fact, the closest we have to evidence of attempted large-scale vote fraud in the current election cycle is a scandal involving a Republican company hired by the Republican National Committee to conduct voter-registration drives in four swing states, including Florida and Colorada.
In at least 10 counties in Florida, numerous voter registration forms submitted by Strategic Alliance Consulting have been found to be fraudulent. The company — founded by Nathan Sproul, a former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party — has since been fired by the RNC because of those problems. In Florida alone, Sproul’s company was paid $1.3 million for its voter-registration efforts.
Even in this specific case, however, there is no evidence that false registrations were generated in an attempt to alter election outcomes. The fraudulent registrations appear to have been submitted by Strategic Alliance workers who were attempting to increase the number of voters they claimed to register. The phantom voters thus created were not going to turn up at the polls attempting to vote.
However, other aspects of the Strategic Alliance effort might be more troubling. Voter registration is supposed to be nonpartisan, with voters of all inclinations allowed to register. In the past, however, registration drives led by Sproul have been accused of collecting and then tossing out registration forms signed by would-be Democratic voters.
Those voters would believe themselves properly registered, only to show up at the voting booth with no record that they had done so. A recent videotape of a Strategic Alliance registration worker outside a Colorado grocery store suggests there may be some basis to those fears:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/10/01/dissecting-the-gops-in-person-voting-fraud-fraud/
In Florida, hundreds of suspicious voter registration forms were submitted to local election boards by workers for a firm called Strategic Allied Consulting, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to sign up potential voters this year. Election officials in Palm Beach, Fla., first became suspicious after noticing dozens of forms that all appeared to have been signed by the same person or that listed addresses belonging to commercial businesses rather than residences.
The company initially claimed all the forms were turned in by a single individual and that the irregularities represented an isolated event. But last week officials discovered a similar pattern of irregularities in nine other Florida counties where Strategic Allied Consulting had been active, including some that listed dead people and others that were either incomplete or illegible. Election officials in those counties reported they had turned hundreds of suspect forms over to local prosecutors.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-voter-id-20121001,0,2723811.story
By John Romano, Times Columnist In Print: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
They were right, I was wrong.
They knew better, I knew nothing.
When I recently criticized the state's Republican leaders for chasing nonexistent voter fraud, I should have bowed to their insider knowledge.
After all, they were the ones paying $1.33 million to a company that has apparently turned in phony voter registration forms across Florida.
And to think I doubted their sincerity.
In case you missed it, the Republican Party of Florida fired a vendor last week after it was discovered that potentially hundreds of incorrect registration forms had been submitted in at least 10 counties around the state.
To be fair, no one has accused the Republican Party of trying to tilt election results with these phantom voters. The suspicion is that workers for Strategic Allied Consulting were more interested in their employee evaluations than the presidential election.
"I am assuming these were turned in by an employee trying to justify his $12 an hour," said Susan Bucher, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections who first alerted state officials to suspicious-looking applications.
The problem is being blamed on a handful of rogue Strategic employees, although that doesn't quite explain why such a large number of counties were involved.
Which brings us to the larger question:
Why was the Republican Party paying gobs of money to a startup company linked to a somewhat colorful history of voter fraud accusations?
Formed just a few months ago, Strategic Allied Consulting has already earned millions for voter registration drives around the country.
Nice work if you can get it, right?
Well, it turns out Strategic is the brainchild of famed Republican consultant Nathan Sproul. And Sproul explained to the Los Angeles Times last week that the RNC requested he create a new company because Republicans did not want the baggage of Sproul's previous voter registration companies.
Back in 2004, a Sproul company earned a reported $8 million for voter registration drives before George W. Bush's re-election.
The company was also accused of misleading potential voters and of destroying applications from Democrats in several states. During a congressional hearing years later, it was pointed out that not only did Bush's Department of Justice fail to thoroughly investigate those accusations, but that Sproul was a guest at the White House at Christmastime.
It's important to point out that Sproul has adamantly denied wrongdoing. But it's interesting to note that he happily acknowledges his companies are hired to attract Republican voters.
And that's perfectly legal. Democrats also cater their voter registration drives to their likely constituents. Or have you forgotten the ACORN scandal?
But here's the difference:
This is not simply an issue of partisan voter drives. Rather, it's the wisdom of Republicans hiring a firm with a checkered past and hiding behind a new name.
For a party that has passed laws making it more difficult to vote, that seems disingenuous. For a party that sued the federal government over access to potential voter rolls, that seems two-faced.
For a party that has been shouting about voter fraud, that seems hypocritical.
[Last modified: Oct 01, 2012 09:30 PM]
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/why-did-republican-party-hire-voter-registration-firm-with-dubious-ties/1254336
Dissecting the GOP’s ‘in-person voting-fraud’ fraud
11:20 am October 1, 2012, by Jay
And so it continues: Republicans have yet to identify any evidence anywhere in the country of attempts to alter election outcomes through in-person voting fraud.
None.
Yet in the alternative universe that too many of them occupy — the same universe in which Mitt Romney is up 10 points in “unskewed” polling — they are somehow absolutely certain that it occurs, and these supposed “small-government” types are equally certain that new regulations and state bureaucracies all across the country are necessary to prevent it.
This completely imaginary “problem” has acquired great credence on the right because it is so useful. First, it appears to confirm their vague fear that they must be victims of some nefarious plot — somehow involving poor people who are being manipulated against them — to steal elections and thus power. That sense of emotional confirmation is all the evidence that they need, and conservative media are eager to provide it.
Second — whether by intention or happy circumstance — the story offers GOP politicians an excuse to create new and completely unnecessary obstacles to voting by those who do not possess government identification. In Pennsylvania, for example, the state officially estimated that some 759,000 perfectly eligible voters did not possess and identification of the type required by a new state law.
And in Ohio, Republicans are in court insisting that provisional ballots that were cast in the wrong precinct because of mistakes by polling workers must be tossed out and not counted. in other words, through no fault of their own, legally registered voters who did everything by the book would be stripped of their constitutional right to vote. Only a cynic would suggest that the GOP position is driven by the fact that such mistakes occur far more often in more Democratic urban areas, where precincts are much smaller and tightly drawn, making confusion more likely. It’s not an insignificant problem — in 2008, the state tossed 14,355 such ballots, Bloomburg reports.
In fact, the closest we have to evidence of attempted large-scale vote fraud in the current election cycle is a scandal involving a Republican company hired by the Republican National Committee to conduct voter-registration drives in four swing states, including Florida and Colorada.
In at least 10 counties in Florida, numerous voter registration forms submitted by Strategic Alliance Consulting have been found to be fraudulent. The company — founded by Nathan Sproul, a former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party — has since been fired by the RNC because of those problems. In Florida alone, Sproul’s company was paid $1.3 million for its voter-registration efforts.
Even in this specific case, however, there is no evidence that false registrations were generated in an attempt to alter election outcomes. The fraudulent registrations appear to have been submitted by Strategic Alliance workers who were attempting to increase the number of voters they claimed to register. The phantom voters thus created were not going to turn up at the polls attempting to vote.
However, other aspects of the Strategic Alliance effort might be more troubling. Voter registration is supposed to be nonpartisan, with voters of all inclinations allowed to register. In the past, however, registration drives led by Sproul have been accused of collecting and then tossing out registration forms signed by would-be Democratic voters.
Those voters would believe themselves properly registered, only to show up at the voting booth with no record that they had done so. A recent videotape of a Strategic Alliance registration worker outside a Colorado grocery store suggests there may be some basis to those fears:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/10/01/dissecting-the-gops-in-person-voting-fraud-fraud/
In Florida, hundreds of suspicious voter registration forms were submitted to local election boards by workers for a firm called Strategic Allied Consulting, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to sign up potential voters this year. Election officials in Palm Beach, Fla., first became suspicious after noticing dozens of forms that all appeared to have been signed by the same person or that listed addresses belonging to commercial businesses rather than residences.
The company initially claimed all the forms were turned in by a single individual and that the irregularities represented an isolated event. But last week officials discovered a similar pattern of irregularities in nine other Florida counties where Strategic Allied Consulting had been active, including some that listed dead people and others that were either incomplete or illegible. Election officials in those counties reported they had turned hundreds of suspect forms over to local prosecutors.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-voter-id-20121001,0,2723811.story