Nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal Widens, Becomes Criminal Matter in Florida

Nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal Widens, Becomes Criminal Matter in Florida
Potentially fraudulent forms in 11 FL counties; Concerns emerge in other states; RNC scrambles to contain damage

source: www.bradblog.com...
By Brad Friedman on 9/30/2012

a criminal election fraud complaint has now reportedly been filed with law enforcement in the state of Florida against a Republican firm, owned by a paid Mitt Romney consultant, which was hired by the GOP to carry out partisan voter registration operations in at least five battleground states.

Millions of dollars were spent on the aborted effort by the GOP over the last two months --- their largest single expenditure in several of the states where the scheme was in full tilt --- to seek out Romney supporters only, and sign them up to vote.

It wasn't until after the threat of criminal action that the state level GOP party in Florida moved to fire Sproul and Strategic Allied Consulting. After that the national party began a much-delayed, serious damage control in firing the firm.

It took several days for the story to go national, and for the RNC to eventually take action in firing the company that Sproul says he was specifically asked to create for them, but only after the Republican Party of Florida, and then the North Carolina GOP fired the firm first. The state parties say they had hired the company "at the request" of the RNC. They fired Strategic after allegedly fraudulent and purposely changed voter registration forms turned in by the group emerged in other counties beyond Palm Beach County, FL where the Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher initially discovered and then turned in over 100 "questionable" forms to the State Attorney last Monday.

Here's where it gets interesting - the state level parties say they were specifically ASKED by the national party to use this firm - that it was the national party that arranged for Sproul and Strategic Allied Consulting to conduct registrations in battle ground states. After the fraudulent forms were caught by the election boards in a handful of counties, the Florida GOP tried to move quickly to fire Sproul and SAC but was delayed by the national party that has trying to run damage control. Since then, Sproul has also come out accusing the GOP, saying that he did exactly what they asked him to do.

Strategic Allied Consulting is also the same firm responsible for the young girl caught outside a shop trying to register only "Romney people".

Colo. girl registering ‘only Romney’ voters tied to firm dumped by RNC over fraud

Strategic Allied Consulting is a shell company run by Nathan Sproul, a 'notorious' GOP operative who was also involved in voter registration fraud in 2004 and 2008. Nathan Sproul is also a bundler for Mitt Romney.

Romney Quietly Hires Consulting Firm With Sordid History Of Destroying Democratic Voter Registration Forms

Late last year, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign began paying Nathan Sproul, a political consultant with a long history of destroying Democratic voter registration forms and manipulating ballot initiatives. Sproul, who changed his firm’s name from Sproul and Associates to Lincoln Strategies, has received over $70,000 from Romney’s campaign. Much of the campaign coverage has focused on the rhetoric of surrogates and the role of high-priced television advertisements. But if Sproul continues to play a role in the campaign, and if his previous work is any guide, his firm may have an impact on key swing states.

This is a lengthy article, give it a good read before commenting please.

Nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal Widens, Becomes Criminal Matter in Florida

The only way the republicans can win at this point is either by stuffing a sock in Mitt and hopping the obama hate can elect him.

Or cheat...

If you listen closely, you can hear the dying cries of the Romney Campaign echoing off the walls.

So the Republicans hire a private firm to do voter registration....find the company is apparently targeting Conservative types to sign up...and fires them upon learning this isn't kosher. Now, another SUPER-Scandal is born and by God that was *FAST* too! Talk about Johnny on the SPOT for criminal action.


Acorn..spent years committing OUTRIGHT fraud systemically and across multiple states. We don't have to guess. We have criminal prosecutions with court transcripts to know this for certain as as fact. Hell, excuses are still made to this day for why that shouldn't be the Democratic party's fault at all. We aren't even supposed to care that federal funding by the truckload was still going to or debated as being proper for their organization AFTER criminal prosecutions began and even ran their course to show the level of criminal liability to the leadership level of Acorn in some cases.


Now I'm never going to point to the scumbag behavior of Acorn to justify the scumbag behavior of this private firm the GOP contracted. Wrong is Wrong and relative terms don't fit in that world, in my thinking. Having said that?

How about some double standard? We seem to have it coming these days with unlimited seconds. Kinda like Michelle and her school fruit buffets.

The truly funny part about this whole mess is the conservatives on here will still say that the Republican push for voter suppression is because they actually care about the protecting the vote. The other funny thing is that this is the party that has made stamping out voter fraud their mission leading up to the election.

well, i'm not surprised...with voter suppression, lying about Obamas birth and nationality, FOX NEWS republican party/romney staff connections, and of course, Obama being half-black and a democrat.....(yawn) what else is new.

If this news goes viral and it probably will; the Romney Campaign has melted down into an inept, train wreck that will insure that Obama get elected. In the beginning I thought that Mitt might have a shot at the presidency by his campaign was run by a bunch of clowns.

Obama won't win............but

Romney will LOSE!

The conservative's crying of ACORN, and obama does it too will fall on deaf ears. The American people have a very short attention span. That's why well run campaigns are a necessity in the circus of American politics.

What do you suppose would happen if unregistered voters in the millions from all over the country showed up to vote and started screaming that their registration had been purposely destroyed to prevent their vote?

That would make for some fun, I'll wager.


*note: I do not condone such behavior, nor am I suggesting that anybody try*

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Acorn..spent years committing OUTRIGHT fraud systemically and across multiple states.

No, they didn't... it is a lie perpetrated by James O'keefe, Hannah Giles and Andrew Breitbart that got regurgitated over and over and over until people have forgotten that there was even once a question of legitimacy. Check the second link in my signature.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
So the Republicans hire a private firm to do voter registration....find the company is apparently targeting Conservative types to sign up...and fires them upon learning this isn't kosher.

Did you not read it or did you really just leave out what was actually illegal? They threw away any applications filled out by those who who weren't Republicans. That's illegal. Don't whine double standard, even Acorn didn't do that.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

So the Republicans hire a private firm to do voter registration....find the company is apparently targeting Conservative types to sign up...and fires them upon learning this isn't kosher.

You didn't read the news - the Republicans didn't find out anything - it was the boards of election officials in 11 counties that uncovered the fraud. Only after they publicized the fraud did the Florida GOP party move to fire the firm. It took them almost two weeks to do that, after the national GOP party ran damage control.

There is also a HUGE difference between this and ACORN. Keeping in mind that Sproul has been doing this since 2000, and has been caught before. The difference is that ACORN was a "pay-per-registration" drive, which didn't care whether it was Republican, Democrat, or even a fake signature, as the kids were just out to collect signatures so they could get paid more. SAC however, would ONLY register Republicans or throw away Democrat registrations, SAC has been accused of forcing registrants to leave out party affiliation so they would fill them in later or would hand pre-filled out forms to potential voters, but worst of all is destroying registration forms of those registering as Democrats, which would cause voters to show up at the polls believing they could vote only to be turned away. While ACORN was a scandal, it doesn't come CLOSE to the level of scandal that is Strategic Allied Consulting.

As I pointed out in a blog post earlier this year, Sproul's alleged activities were uniquely worrisome. “So the difference between ACORN and Sproul is that ACORN doesn’t throw away or change registration documents after they have been filled out,” remarked Chris Cannon, a Republican lawmaker from Utah, who later lost his seat because of a right-wing primary challenge, during a congressional hearing on voter suppression. Indeed, many voter registration groups (including ACORN) have paid per-registration form turned in, thus incentivizing fake signatures—i.e., Mickey Mouse registering to vote. But this type of thing doesn't actually result in fraudulent votes because Mickey Mouse doesn’t show up at the polls and try to cast a ballot. Destroying registration forms, on the other hand, means citizens who believed they were registered show up and could have been denied their vote.

From: The Nation: GOP Quietly Hires Firm Tied to Voter Fraud Scandal for Work in Battleground States

In spite of all this, the hypocrisy and silence from the right-wing on this matter is very, very telling.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I have to disagree, because you are doing exactly what you said you wouldnt. Pointing to Acorn as an example, and then saying your not using it to excuse the behavior.

One key difference is at the same time the Dems where trying to be the Bastion of protecting voters by trying to deny voters the right to vote with Voter ID laws.

Really the Reps have screwed the pooch this entire the election, with every news story that comes out it seems like they are purposefully trying to screw up so that Obama wins.

Much like the Dems did with Kerry to ensure a two term the next election (which it looks like they are going to get)

I hate to say it but it looks like the strategy the Reps are going with is offering up a Dummy candidate, to throw the fight so We get a Two term Jeb Bush next election.

I think they figure another 4 years of Obama will ensure it, if you notice they are even making a heavy push for the senate to negate the Damage of a Dem president with a Rep senate.

Its all a game, and the Reps are retreating now to win in 4 years.

So basically all this whining of democratic vote fraud was really just a smokescreen while they ran their own fraud.

Way to go.

Idiots.

reply to post by EvilSadamClone


That's actually the way they seem to do things lately. They accuse the left of doing what they're doing. The GOP accused Dems of creating a "war on women", messing up the economy and now, of voter fraud... They can't even come up with anything original!

This doesn't surprise me at all. To win, they MUST cheat. And they are more than willing, as all the voter ID legislation shows.

You cannot convince me that the GOP didn't know about this. They no longer have ANY values and will do whatever it takes to get Obama out of the White House. They might just succeed, but it will be because they CHEATED.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Well, they got away with it in 2000, maybe they think they can pull it off again.

Do you think the GOP knew what they were hiring Sproul and "Strategic Allied Consulting" to do?

Better believe they knew:

RNC Asked Nathan Sproul to Create Shell Companies to Mask Payments

In the months before the 2004 presidential election, a firm called Sproul & Associates launched voter registration drives in at least eight states, most of them swing states. The group--run by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Christian Coalition and the Arizona Republican Party--had been hired by the Republican National Committee.

Sproul got into a bit of trouble last fall when, in certain states, it came out that the firm was playing dirty tricks in order to suppress the Democratic vote: concealing their partisan agenda, tricking Democrats into registering as Republicans, surreptitiously re-registering Democrats and Independents as Republicans, and shredding Democratic registration forms.

The article goes into detail of how the Republican National Committee hired Sproul and tried to hide the connection back to his tainted past, by asking him to set up a shell company to hide their payments to him.

Sproul said he created Strategic Allied Consulting at the RNC's request because the party wanted to avoid being publicly linked to the past allegations. The firm was set up at a Virginia address, and Sproul does not show up on the corporate paperwork.

"In order to be able to do the job that the state parties were hiring us to do, the [RNC] asked us to do it with a different company's name, so as to not be a distraction from the false information put out in the Internet," Sproul said.

The RNC's rapid decision to distance itself comes as Republicans around the country have sought to make voter fraud an issue, in part by pressing for voter identification laws.

The article has many links to additional and ONGOING voter-registration fraud in California, also by Sproul.

Isn't this the party who was allegedly concerned about voter fraud?

So they are using the concern of voter fraud to cover for the fact that they are
all about perpetrating voter fraud

"Thou who point your finger hast three fingers pointed back at you"

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

Acorn..spent years committing OUTRIGHT fraud systemically and across multiple states.

How about some double standard? We seem to have it coming these days with unlimited seconds. Kinda like Michelle and her school fruit buffets.

Oh so many contradictions in one post!

You say that wrong is wrong, and you also admit that those caught before (for the other team) are facing charges for it, then you seem to ignore everything you just said and call "double standards"?

Fraud is fraud, no matter what party is involved. ACORN is (apparently) facing the wrath for that, and rightly so, yet you think the example of the RNC being involved in this now is somehow not as bad, because ACORN did it?

Try to get over your political cheer-leading just for one moment, then you might see how ridiculous you sound.

P.S. I hope this is the final nail in the coffin for the Republican party in this election. Republicans have been proven to be ushering in a dictatorship in Michigan and elsewhere, they've abused their own party faithful and rewritten the rules, ignoring the votes of their own supporters. No sane person would want such a suspicious and devious group of people running the country.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


yep and I bet everyone here screaming about this would still defend ACORN's community organizing drives which started way back decades ago which was founded in 1970 by one radical Wade Rathke

ACORN began in Arkansas in 1970, when it was founded by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado. It filed for bankruptcy and disbanded in 2010.

ACORN pursued its goals through negotiation, legislation, voter participation, and demonstration. From 1972 through 1974, ACORN sponsored a “Save the City” campaign in Little Rock

www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net...

What other Progresive do we know from Little Rock Arkansas?

Originally posted by Kali74
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Acorn..spent years committing OUTRIGHT fraud systemically and across multiple states.

No, they didn't... it is a lie perpetrated by James O'keefe, Hannah Giles and Andrew Breitbart that got regurgitated over and over and over until people have forgotten that there was even once a question of legitimacy. Check the second link in my signature.

edit on 1-10-2012 by Kali74 because: (no reason given)

Umm... Yes, Kali, the organization so many of the left LOVE...and Occupy was so strongly made up BY was absolutely seeing it's members prosecuted for organized and systemic voter fraud.

James O'Keefe may very well be a political operative and he IS...if only on his own initiative, but as he learned the hard way, he has no control over the Criminal Justice System and it's the criminal courts were the case of Acron's criminal conduct........OR That of SO MANY of it's "individual and isolated members" as they'd have us believe, was sorted out and proven one way or the other.

Arguing the facts and why they came to be how they are is one thing. Arguing facts as whether they ARE facts at all is what this site's Motto is all about denying, I'd think.

It stops being opinion and theory when it's on the docket of a criminal court.....and Voter Fraud in Acorn absolutely did......but damn...even that we're supposed to pretend didn't exist, doesn't matter or flat out isn't allowed to be talked about, right?

Is there ANY misconduct by the left we CAN discuss without *instant* fight around here? I mean, this was so well documented, reported and widespread, I'd have felt safe mentioning it. Silly me.....I forget myself and where I am sometimes.