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Subscribe to RSSThe Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd talks to NBC's Michael Isikoff about Florida voting fraud and what's being done about it now
Updated: 8:46p.m. ET: Election officials in six Florida counties are investigating what appears to be "hundreds” of cases of suspected voter fraud by a GOP consulting firm that has been paid nearly $3 million by the Republican National Committee to register Republican voters in five key battleground states, state officials tell NBC.
But the veteran GOP consultant, Nathan Sproul, who runs the firm, strongly defended his company's conduct, saying it has rigorous "quality controls" and blamed the alleged fraud on the actions of a few "bad apples," workers who were hired to register Republican voters for $12 an hour and then tried to "cheat the system."
The allegations of suspected voter fraud committed by Strategic Allied Consulting of Tempe, Arizona spread Thursday to counties throughout Florida. At the same time, the Republican National Committee said it had severed its ties to the firm altogether.
"We have heard from supervisors in six counties that they have irregularities in voter registration," said Chris Cate, spokesman for the Florida Department of State, which oversees the state's division of elections. Although local prosecutors are already investigating the firm's conduct, Cate said state officials were also considering turning the matter over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to determine if there was a pattern of misconduct.
The suspected fraud included apparent cases of dead people being registered as Republican voters, said Paul Lux, the supervisor of elections in Okaloosa County and a Republican. He compared the suspected fraud to the alleged acts of ACORN, the liberal activist group that became the center of a national controversy several years ago.
"It's kind of ironic that the dead people they accused Acorn of registering are now being done by the RPOF" [Republican Party of Florida], Lux said in an interview with NBC News.
While Republican groups as a whole are still outspending Democratic groups, the gap is narrowing, in part to the individual donors finally stepping up on the Democrats' behalf. NBC News' Michael Isikoff discusses.
In addition to Palm Beach County, where election officials initially reported 106 instances of suspected fraudulent registration forms, officials in Okaloosa, Pasco, Santa Rosa, Lee and Clay counties have also reported instances of possible fraudulent forms submitted by the firm, officials said.
In a statement on Strategic Allied's website, the firm's lawyer said:
"Strategic has a zero tolerance policy for breaking the law. 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. Strategic is committed to following the letter of the law and will continue to cooperate with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections to ensure that this issue is resolved."
Sproul said in a telephone interview that his company has employed between 4,000 and 5,000 people to register Republican voters under its contract with the RNC, including over 2,000 in Florida. The employees are given training on how to register voters, including being required to watch a video instructing them not to register felons. The video also instructs recruiters not to "modify or falsify voter registration forms."
"No matter what quality controls you have there are always going to be bad actors in any large scale operation," Sproul said.
Sproul, who has long worked for the GOP, also criticized Florida and national Republican officials for dumping him.
"They're trying to get the distraction behind them," he said about the RNC's action.
Sean Spicer, communications director for the RNC, said Strategic Allied Consulting had been retained by the RNC and state Republican parties to register new Republican voters in five key battleground states.
But Spicer said that the party's relationship with the firm-- which has been paid $2.9 million by the RNC so far this year, according to federal elections records -- has now been terminated in light of alleged voter fraud linked to one of the firm's employees that was reported this week to Florida prosecutors by election officials in Palm Beach County.
"We've made it clear we're not doing business with these guys anymore," said Spicer. "We've come out pretty strong against this kind of stuff -- and we have zero tolerance for this."
Strategic Allied’s parent firm, Lincoln Strategy Group, also headed by Sproul, has been paid about $80,000 by the Romney campaign to conduct "field consulting," according to election records. Asked for comment, Sarah Pompei, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, said by email: "We used this vendor for signature gathering services during the primary but have not used them since 2011."
Besides Florida, Strategic Allied Consulting was hired to register GOP voters in Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado and Virginia. Spicer said it was the only firm hired by the RNC to conduct voter registration. In the case of Nevada, he said, the RNC was paying the firm directly. In the other four states, the firm was being paid by state parties with the funds reimbursed by the RNC.
The allegations involving voter fraud by the GOP consulting firm are a new twist in the national controversy over the threat posed by voter fraud and the impact of new state laws passed by Republican controlled legislatures to combat it. While Republican officials have repeatedly accused Democratic groups such as ACORN of fraudulently registering voters in the past, the new dispute over what happened in Palm Beach-- involving the registration of Republican voters -- appears to be one of the first to have led to a criminal inquiry in this year's election.
Christine Weiss, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office, told NBC News Thursday that the alleged voter fraud by a Strategic Allied Consulting employee is "currently being investigated" by prosecutors in her office after it was brought to the attention of prosecutors on Monday by Palm Beach election supervisor Susan Bucher.
Out of 304 Republican voter registration forms recently dropped off by a Strategic Allied employee at a small "satellite office" of the Palm Beach elections office, 106 were flagged as potentially fraudulent-- including "a lot" with "similar looking" signatures and others with apparently phony addresses, Susan Bucher, the Palm Beach elections supervisor, said in an interview.
Among the suspect home addresses were those that matched a gas station in Miami, a medical building in Boca Raton and a Land Rover automotive dealership in Palm Beach County, she told NBC News.
Bucher said she called in the political director for the Palm Beach Republican Party and the GOP official agreed that the registration forms were a problem. She then took the forms to the Palm Beach County State's Attorney's office on Monday and requested the investigation.
In a statement issued Tuesday night, Mike Grissom, executive director of the Florida Republican Party, said: "When we learned today about the instances of potential voter registration fraud that occurred in Palm Beach County, we immediately informed the Republican National Committee that we were terminating the contract with the voter registration vendor we hired at their request because there is no place for voter registration fraud in Florida."
Sproul has been previously accused of suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms, and manipulating ballot initiatives. His firms -- formerly Sproul & Associates, Lincoln Strategy, and Strategic Allied Consultants -- had previously worked for RNC voter registration efforts during the campaigns of George W. Bush and John McCain. In 2004, Democratic Senators Leahy and Kennedy sent a letter to then Attorney General John Ashcroft requesting that he "launch an immediate investigation into the activities of Mr. Sproul and his firm." But the request did not lead to any criminal charges against Sproul.
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Even most sane and reasonable republicans admit there is very little voter or fraud..Rove,Fox,Hannity and Rush make you think fraud runs rampant...
You found some sane and reasonable Republicans???
Republicans always telegraph what they are going to do. That's why they went after the phantom voter fraud. They will always try to blame Democrats for what they are about to do or already have done and you are about to find out.
On the mark,Sunset.....
Spot on, Sunset. And so -- when Mitt announced the other day that we should expect to hear Obama lie during the debates, I thought to myself -- get ready for the Mitt lies. Here they come!
Read up on Susan Bucher, here is one article that explains much. I am not buying what she is trying to sell.
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/how-many-more-susan-bucher-sci-fi-thrillers-can-palm-beach-county-tolerate
Unbelievable!
barefoot is a lost cause. Total brainwashed human. Manson, Hitler, Jim Jones are looking for this one.
Maybe the DNC should have cut ties with whoever it was who put on their big show a few weeks ago. That was a pretty big gaff showing a Russian ship instead of a U. S. ship, or maybe it was done intentionally.
I post a factual article that Bill CT, very liberal, describes as unbelievable, which it is.
This woman is very incompetent and partisan and until the smoke clears, I don't think we should buy what she is saying.
I suppose you don't believe Obama let a felon screw poor people for a bigger yard either, bu that is a fact.
Sorry, you are the blind party hack, Bush sucked, Obama is ten times worse.
If you hate Bush and you are further right of him, you are just a Neo-Fascist Portion of the Party.
I hate anyone who takes money from taxpayers and gives it to who they think should have it.
That is a mature conservative who knows it is not the governments job to redistribute our money.
How do you define your brilliant self?
You are not very smart at math barefoot. You work for your money and are taxed as so. Their money works from them and they choose how much tax they are willing to pay. Big difference. Now, lets apply some percentage (Statistics) math to the whole idea. Are you with me? I'm willing to take this argument all the way through Ordinary Differential Equations.
You can't even comprehend what you read!
Who's money? Politicians! That is OUR money.
It seems you are talking about the rich, since you can't stay on topic.
Math for you. Corporation taxed at 35% and individual dividends from those are taxed at 15%.
Was that money taxed at 50% or just 15%. Grow Up and learn something besides big words, it is like conversing with Mike Tyson.
I am out of here, but it still appears you our afraid to state your beliefs.
lvingbarefoot. Your a real caveman, out of his place in this world. You like that your vote has not been hindered, and that others have> Redneck to the end, and the redneck republican communist party, IS at its end!!!!!!!!!!!!
Voter fraud proven ,BUT,it's the republicans who are doing it and they got caught REDHANDED ,no if's ,and's or but's . Guilty as charged . Now how is that going to look when the voter id and purge law goes in front of any judge . How's that going to look when the republicans are asked by a judge to prove that there is voter fraud. Well, your honor ,here is proof that there is voter fraud ,strike that your honor . We are dropping the implementation of the law due to technicalities. HA!HA! HA! . You tea party people and republicans can't even CHEAT right . you bunch of nitwits . Hey ,what's the I.Q. of a republican ? Take their average shoe size and divide by two.
Typical Republican, blame the other party for what you are doing!
Mitt your lying, lies,Lies of the GOP & Paul Ryan TeaWackers, Mitt R. Bain, Citizens United and all the Alec corps : that pays off the RepublicanPUKES Politicians. Its all about the Wealthy getting richer and the middle class getting poorer.....They don't want to help the poor...Who are the one's that leach off the taxpayer. The Wealthy: they get welfare both for themselves an for the Corps. ...But it seems that the Wealthy get away with it ..They steal billions and the few poor steals a few thousands. So what does the GOP want, is Screw the MIddle Class to get even with the few. As I say its the me me me and F everyone else.... The failures of the Republicans party trying to take away SS & Medicare & Health care for Woman so they can give their wealthy Blackmailers more money...To hell with the Poor and Needy. Let them freeze in the winter and stave the Old and Babies,let them die from bad water, do away with the EPA and thats what you'll have, just like all you Tea baggers want...You make me sick with your Me Me Me altitude. Greedy and you all call yourself a REAL Christians, Mormans. What a laugh: Wake up...Sounds like Mitt!!!!!!Fuss up your tax Return: Stop your lieing RYAN:
Well the GOP has been right all along. There HAS been massive voter fraud going on. It's just that they're the ones doing it.
And what about ACORN? What about the dead voters on the rolls of Detroit that Detroit claims they cannot purge until next year? What about Chicago where the motto is to fot democrat and vote often?
Tammy, if you are going to bring up ACORN to defend the behaviour of these crooks, then you have no argument whatsoever. Get informed.
I guess the 2000 Supreme Court ruling brings no memories to you, right?
The Tea Baggers actually DOING what they accuse everyone else of with NO PROOF !!
What a country. How does any Repubtard look in the mirror and not be disgusted.
Republicans, have you read the book Elmer Gantry?
Wow, they were right-- there IS voter fraud going on. Should we require right wingers to show more ID now?
Still LOL...chickens have come home to roost! Fellow libertards, be sure to bookmark this article to show to your conservatoad friends when they get all smug about ACORN. Mwahh-ha-ha!
The Austrialian Deputy Prime Minister said it best:
Republican voter fraud, anti-freedom and rights ID laws, racism, hatred, lies, intolerance, bigotry, scapegoating and propaganda driven agenda. All acts performed by Republicans recently. They pick a new minority group each week to hate and scapegoat. Republicans are one desperate act from really threatening our economy and country. They are really that dangerous.
The RNC fired the firms that worked for Bush and McCain!!!!!!!!
Everyone knows that Bush won the 2000 election because of voter fraud,,,,,so how come they couldn't get McCain elected?????
Complete failures for over 40 years,,,guess who I talking about,,,,
Romney, describing Bain's formation, showed how he viewed the firm's mission. He explained that its goal was to identify potential and hidden value in companies, buy significant stakes in these businesses, and then "harvest them at a significant profit" within five to eight years.
Bain Capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in startup companies and ongoing companies, then to take an active hand in managing them and hopefully, five to eight years later, to harvest them at a significant profit
Willard Romney - 1985
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/1985-romney-bain-harvest-firms-profits-video
Have any of you right win apologists read this from the article:
"Nathan Sproul has been previously accused of suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms and manipulating ballot initiatives."
How do you have the nerve to say that Democrats would have backed this crook if he were working for the Democrats while in fact he was caught before and the GOP still used him this year?
Accused by who? The likes of Bucher?
I am accusing you of having sex with farm animals.
I guess that means you have sex with farm animals. Case closed!
Accused by a reputable source.... unlike the idiots that accused ACORN of voter fraud.
List the sources, because Bucher is FAR from credible, VERY FAR!
So now Sproul gets caught again and you don't believe the first fraud? How many times does it take for you to understand that Sproul is a bad player?
Bucher is a BAD player, caught several times.
It just seems way too juvenile and convenient. I live in the fraud capital of the world and see so much dumb crap, but to sign a bunch of names the same and drop it off at HER office is real fishy.
One of two things. A $12 employee trying to justify a paycheck or total crap on the Democrat side.
I don't think you throw away a multi-million dollar contract so easy.
The other accuser is Eric Russell!
Firing them was the correct response.
However, it's obvious they weren't watching their own hires very closely. If Romney had gone on to win the election by carrying these battleground states, and THEN these cases of fraud revealed, would the Republicans have demanded a recount?
¨They were not WATCHING their own hires¨?
They were watching like hawks to see how many more votes they could get with their drity tricks. Get real.
With all of their longstanding schemes to commit voter suppression and election fraud, the republicans are conducting themselves as a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization, and should be treated as such.
I guess the RNC was correct in their allegations of Voter Fraud. They just didn't expect that it was within their ranks. Well they asked for it LOL I'm amazed that the RNC would allow dead people to be registered and polled. I would put it past those people to try to vote in the coming election LOL. Romney sure could use them. LOL
They didn´t expect that it was within their ranks?
They knew it, they promoted it, they financed it and they approved it! Who knows how many more firms doing exactly the same things are under the payroll of the GOP.
But of course they don´t know anything about it!
They didn't just expect it, they knew it and most likely wanted everyone to focus on Democrats while they stuffed the ballot boxes and lost some ballot boxes.
¨Prosecutors in two counties are investigating possible voter fraud by the GOP consulting firm, officials said.¨
This cannot be, we know that Repugnicans are incapable of cheating in an election, just ask Jeff Bush and the Florida State Attorney in 2000.
And the Supreme court!
The GOP must be incensed!! At having been caught!
I think we should require all radical extremist to carry their official Republican Party/Neo-Fascist Party/Tea Party Card. That way we can ensure there isn't any real fraud going on in voting. They will produce the card. They are that proud and stupid at the same time.
Is this supposed to be news?
I'm surprised the 'Washington Establishment' (Democrats and Republicans) allowed this article to slip through.
Not a big deal that the republicans fired this firm, he will be reorganized and back in business under another name by the sundown today.
Here is another thing I don't get: "Bucher said she called in the political director for the Palm Beach Republican Party and the GOP official agreed that the registration forms were a problem. She then took the forms to the Palm Beach county State Attorney's office and requested the investigation.
What is she doing going to the GOP first? She doesn't work for them (does she?). The person she called wasn't the person who collected or submitted the forms -- so she couldn't have been somehow after facts that would make sense of this. What if this guy had said -- nope, it all looks fine to me (and here is $100,000 to forget you saw it)? It doesn't look good when a state public official, about to blow the whistle on wrongdoing, first calls in someone affected by, or who might be implicated in, the wrongdoing BEFORE she reports it.
What if there is evidence that has now been destroyed (that the State Atty could have gone after, had he had the opportunity to do so before the perps got wind of the fact that they had been caught)? Glad that the GOP agreed with her, but the way this was handled seems bad to me.
Wouldn't it be amazing if the GOP wanted the same ID requirement to buy an assault weapon at a gun show as it wants voters to have ?
That would be to infringe in the sacred right of the citizen. Having a gun is more important than voting.
Not the first time the Republicans cheated in South Florida. Last time their cheating there gave us George Bush. They do love power, but are not fit to have it.