RNC's Acorn? RNC Fires Firm Over Florida Questions

[Dave Lane]

A big embarrassment came this week for the Republican Party, which has made voting integrity and fighting voter fraud a major issue.

A consulting firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in five battleground states has been let go after one of its workers apparently submitted over 100 questionable registration forms in Florida's Palm Beach County.

The party severed its ties with the firm — Strategic Allied Consulting — because it has "zero tolerance" for voter fraud, said RNC spokesman Sean Spicer.

"We take allegations of anything that would undermine the integrity of elections very seriously," Spicer said. The RNC paid the company, which was formed by an Arizona political consultant, $3 million to register voters in Florida, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia.

The company hired individuals to go out and sign up voters. But workers in Palm Beach County's election office became suspicious when they saw registration forms with similar-looking signatures and other irregularities, such as commercial instead of residential addresses. Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher said she took her concerns to local Republicans, who arranged a meeting with a representative of the company, who then helped identify even more questionable forms.


Local authorities are investigating, and so too is the state.

Chris Cate, a spokesman for the Florida secretary of state's office, said suspicious registrations have been uncovered in six counties, although he said it's not clear yet if they were all from the same firm.

The incident is embarrassing to Republicans for several reasons.

First, the party has used the issue of voter fraud to push new voting restrictions in Florida and elsewhere. The laws have become a major point of contention in the current campaign. Democrats say the laws — which include voter ID requirements and limits on voter registration drives — are intended to suppress the votes of minorities and others who tend to vote Democratic. Republicans say Democrats aren't interested in preventing voter fraud — although evidence of such fraud is rare.

Secondly, Spicer said the Florida incident looks like a case of "one bad apple" in an organization. And indeed, Strategic Allied Consulting's attorney, Fred Petti, issued a statement saying that the company has "zero tolerance" for breaking the law and "accordingly, once we learned of the irregularities in Palm Beach County, we were able to trace all questionable cards to one individual and immediately terminated our working relationship with the individual in question." He did not name the person.

But this is almost exactly the same response that the community organizing group ACORN gave when it was accused of filing fraudulent voter registration forms in past elections — a response that was widely rejected by Republicans.

The RNC made ACORN a major target in the 2008 presidential campaign, accusing it of widespread voter fraud and trying to link the organization to then-candidate Barack Obama — implying that the Democrat wanted to use fraudulent votes to win.

The third reason this is embarrassing for Republicans is that Strategic Allied Consulting was formed by an Arizona consultant named Nathan Sproul, whose past registration efforts have been the subject of numerous allegations of irregularities. In several instances, those working for Sproul — whose company has operated under several different names — were accused of discarding registration forms filled out by Democrats. The allegations were investigated, but no charges were filed.

Sproul did not return messages from NPR, but he told NBC News on Thursday that the company hired between 4,000 and 5,000 individuals to register voters for the RNC, and that the individuals received instructions not to falsify forms. However, he added: "No matter what quality controls you have, there are always going to be bad actors in any large-scale operation."

Sean Spicer said the RNC won't ask Sproul for its money back, because the voter registration efforts are complete. Spicer did not know how many people the company signed up to vote in the five states.

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

This isn't about Acorn or the DNC, and I agree they should be. This is about a party that has made such an ungodly stink about how dems are trying to steal an election and why this protection is needed and that protection is needed.

Bottom line is this. By associating with such a person that eliminates their argument that voter integrity is paramount. If that argument is eliminated then they went through all those changes in voting requirement for one reason and that reason was to suppress the opposing vote.

LOL, whatever. I don't know all the facts about this company and the guy running it, either do you. They were investigated and no charges filed. Hang your hat on it, I don't care.

I've stated if voter fraud really occurred the book should be thrown at them. I'm good with that. Conrgrats to the RNC for firing them, and congrats for Fox reporting it before I heard it anywhere else.

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

But yet didn't run on in here and tell us about this travesty of justice. I mean you guys are so big on voter integrity and all, outraged by the prospect of any cheating going on, but yet failed to report this to the board.

That's kind of odd.

Here, in the honor of fairness I found an article showing the dems cracking down on voter fraud:

Posted at 02:49 PM ET, 09/10/2012
Maryland Democrat quits congressional race amid vote fraud allegations
By Ben Pershing
This post has been updated

A Maryland Democratic candidate quit her congressional race Monday after her own party told state officials that she had committed fraud by voting in both Maryland and Florida in recent elections.

Wendy Rosen, a small-business owner running against freshman Rep. Andy Harris (R) in the Eastern Shore-based 1st Congressional District, released a statement saying that “with great regret, and much sorrow” she was resigning from the contest.

“Personal issues have made this the hardest decision that I have had to make,” Rosen said

Rosen’s announcement came the same day the state Democratic party released a letter to state Attorney General Douglas Gansler and state prosecutors reporting the allegations against Rosen.

“The Maryland Democratic Party has discovered that Ms. Rosen has been registered to vote in both Florida and Maryland since at least 2006; that she in fact voted in the 2006 general election both in Florida and Maryland; and that she voted in the presidential preference primaries held in both Florida and Maryland in 2008,” wrote Yvette Lewis, the state party chair. “This information is based on an examination of the voter files from both states. We believe that this is a clear violation of Maryland law and urge the appropriate office to conduct a full investigation.”

A senior Maryland Democrat said the party had been tipped off this weekend by someone within the party about Rosen’s potential issue. After checking the allegation, the party contacted Rosen on Monday morning and urged her to quit.

Local Democratic committees in the 1st district will now meet and vote on a new candidate to replace Rosen on the ballot. The new name must be submitted to the state by Sept. 27.

Regardless of his opponent, Harris is considered a safe bet for reelection. Though the 1st district was previously competitive — Democrat Frank Kratovil won the seat in 2008 before being ousted by Harris in 2010 — it was redrawn to be safer for Republicans after the 2010 Census.

Voter fraud has been a heated political issue, both in Maryland and across the country. Republicans have frequently accused Democrats of turning their backs on the practice, while Democrats say the GOP uses alleged fraud as a way to keep Democrats from the polls.

“If the Maryland Democrat Party is willing to push one of its own candidates out of the race due to voter fraud, I’m sure this means they will join us in an effort to purge the rolls across Maryland of illegal immigrants, the deceased, and those otherwise unqualified to vote,” said David Ferguson, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party. “It is a sad state of affairs that Democrat voters considered Wendy Rosen to be their model citizen for the First District and represent them on November’s ballot.”

As recently as Sunday, Rosen still believed her campaign was going full-speed ahead.

“My trip to Charlotte was incredible!” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I didn’t get a moment on the floor of the arena ... I spent all of my time hunting for campaign support! Everyone was so helpful from Jan Schakowsky and Ben Cardin to all of the women’s groups, environmental groups, jewish organizations. I feel re-energized for this last 8 weeks! Forward, not Backward!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...907a_blog.html

Unfortunately she evidently won a primary and was actually running for office.

[Brock]

More entertaining reading.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/2...n-sternad.html

[VAChief]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

LOL, whatever. I don't know all the facts about this company and the guy running it, either do you. They were investigated and no charges filed. Hang your hat on it, I don't care.

I've stated if voter fraud really occurred the book should be thrown at them. I'm good with that. Conrgrats to the RNC for firing them, and congrats for Fox reporting it before I heard it anywhere else.

I'm sure they were completely blindsided that Nathan Sproul might not have the highest ethical standards. His reputation was certainly spotless, which is what you would want considering their crusade to eradicate voter fraud.

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by VAChief

I'm sure they were completely blindsided that Nathan Sproul might not have the highest ethical standards. His reputation was certainly spotless, which is what you would want considering their crusade to eradicate voter fraud.

As opposed to the democrats who acknowledge voter fraud is ok as long as you're not caught.

[blaise]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

This isn't about Acorn or the DNC, and I agree they should be. This is about a party that has made such an ungodly stink about how dems are trying to steal an election and why this protection is needed and that protection is needed.

Bottom line is this. By associating with such a person that eliminates their argument that voter integrity is paramount. If that argument is eliminated then they went through all those changes in voting requirement for one reason and that reason was to suppress the opposing vote.

No it doesn't. Not unless you're claiming that everyone in the RNC who has complained about voter fraud was familiar with this person and knew he was an employee.

[blaise]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

FACT CHECK:The official Democratic committee didn't run ACORN.

This was the official Republican party committing deliberate voter fraud.

No equivalency.

FACT CHECK:
They were a consulting firm hired by the RNC. Not the RNC.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by blaise

FACT CHECK:
They were a consulting firm hired by the RNC. Not the RNC.

Fact check:

They were a consulting firm hired by the RNC, despite the fact that a)the guy running it has had allegations made against him in the past b)feels compelled to change his company's name several times

[blaise]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Fact check:

They were a consulting firm hired by the RNC, despite the fact that a)the guy running it has had allegations made against him in the past b)feels compelled to change his company's name several times

Are you claiming BRC's post was factually correct or just typing stuff?

[tiptap]

My understanding is that under Bush this same outfit use to collect registrations and throw away all the registrations for Democrats they collected. Actually shredded them. Let me just say that again just because you offer registration doesn't mean you automatically get on the voting rolls so as with Acorn this groups bad behavior was found out. That isn't voter fraud. It is only illegal registration by breaking the rules.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by blaise

Are you claiming BRC's post was factually correct or just typing stuff?

I'm stating that they knew who they hired and hired him for a reason. You make it sound like that they had no knowledge of that.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by blaise

FACT CHECK:
They were a consulting firm hired by the RNC. Not the RNC.

FACT CHECK:
The Republican party hired them to do their work at the request of the Republican party. The Republican party is responsible for their actions.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by tiptap

My understanding is that under Bush this same outfit use to collect registrations and throw away all the registrations for Democrats they collected. Actually shredded them. Let me just say that again just because you offer registration doesn't mean you automatically get on the voting rolls so as with Acorn this groups bad behavior was found out. That isn't voter fraud. It is only illegal registration by breaking the rules.

Cite?

[blaise]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

FACT CHECK:
The Republican party hired them to do their work at the request of the Republican party. The Republican party is responsible for their actions.

FACT CHECK: The original "FACT CHECK" post you made was factually incorrect.

[blaise]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

I'm stating that they knew who they hired and hired him for a reason. You make it sound like that they had no knowledge of that.

No, I responded to BRC's post. Was it factually correct?