An official criminal probe has been launched into the GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal we first reported just over one week ago. The investigation, confirmed by Reuters tonight, comes on the heels of an election fraud complaint filed on Friday by the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) after an initial batch of more than 100 apparently fraudulent voter registration applications were discovered in Palm Beach County. The forms had been submitted to the county by the RPOF after being collected by employees of Strategic Allied Consulting, a group hired by the party and headed by Mitt Romney’s paid political consultant and controversial longtime GOP operative Nathan Sproul.
The announcement of a criminal investigation comes on the day after state officials sent an email, obtained by The BRAD BLOG, informing county election officials to sequester hundreds of potentially fraudulent registration forms which may be needed as “evidence” in court proceedings.
Tonight, Reuters is reporting that officials from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirm that they have “found enough evidence to warrant a full-blown investigation” of Strategic Allied Consulting.
Since the emergence of the initial batch of irregular GOP voter registrations early last week, similarly fraudulent forms have reportedly discovered in some 12 Florida counties. During our exclusive interview with Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher last Wednesday, she told us some of the forms her office first discovered included suspicious address changes, “sometimes to commercial buildings or addresses”, which could result in voters becoming disenfranchised when they go to the polls on November 6th.
The confirmation of a criminal investigation buttresses information we mentioned yesterday during our appearance on Thom Hartmann’s Big Picture TV program, about an email sent by Florida’s Dept. of State to all county election officials on Tuesday. (The email is posted in full below.) The missive advises county Supervisors of Elections to sequester all questionable voter registration applications they have discovered since the scandal emerged, as they “may become evidence used in court, so it is important for you to take steps to protect them from tampering”…
As Reuters reports tonight…
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said the agency had found enough evidence to warrant a full-blown investigation of Strategic Allied, a Virginia-based voter registration company doing work for the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida.
The Florida Division of Elections on Friday forwarded a complaint to FDLE after reports of suspicious voter registration forms linked to the company first surfaced in Palm Beach County.
…
“After reviewing this complaint, FDLE has decided that a criminal investigation into these allegations is warranted,” said FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger in an email.
“This is now an active investigation, which precludes us from providing further information until such time that the investigation is complete,” she said.
Strategic Allied Consulting was hired by the FL GOP for $1.3 million in late summer, at the request of the Republican National Committee which reportedly paid the group some $3 million for registration efforts in five key battleground states (FL, NC, VA, CO and NV) and “Get Out the Vote” efforts in two more (WI and OH). The party says they have since cut all ties with the GOP firm.
All of the potentially fraudulent registration forms were submitted by the state GOP, after being collected by Strategic.
Sproul confirmed to The BRAD BLOG that he was asked by the RNC to create the firm. He says he was asked by the party to do so, in order to avoid publicly tying the company, formed as a Virginia corporation in June of 2012, to allegations made against Sproul’s companies in years past when Democratic registration forms were found to have been destroyed and discarded by employees of his firms. (See our initial coverage of the scandal for a summary of allegations against Sproul’s firms over the years.)
Despite allegations in multiple states, during multiple elections going back as far as 2004, charges have never been filed against either Sproul or his companies.
RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer denies that the party had asked Sproul to create the company, though Sproul tells us he stands by his assertion. He has also claimed the Republican Party of Florida has made multiple “libelous” statements about his firm, though he has yet to elaborate on those charges.
Election officials in the other states where Strategic was employed by the RNC are said to be combing through tens of thousands of registration forms submitted by the company, looking for similar improprieties to those found on forms submitted across the state of Florida. There have been several reported instances of Democratic registration forms being destroyed by employees of the company, as well as party affiliations changed from Democratic to Republican in NV, CO and NC.
On Tuesday, The BRAD BLOG documented another disturbing revelation from the scandal: Voter Registration workers employed by Strategic, and other Republican outfits, caught on video tape in a number of states, lying to potential registrants about being pollsters, rather than registration workers, in an attempt to keep Democratic-leaning voters from being able to register at all. The effort seems to be systematic and coordinated, as witnessed in states from Florida to Nevada to Virginia to Oregon and elsewhere.
In other recent GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal news… Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has sent a letter to Nathan Sproul requesting a transcribed interview and documents related to Strategic Allied Consulting’s contract with the RNC. The Congressman’s letter to Sproul is posted here. On Monday, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sent a blistering letter to FL Gov. Rick Scott, demanding a bi-partisan task force to probe the scandal and develop an action plan to help ensure voters are not disenfranchised in the wake of the fraudulently modified registration forms. He slammed Scott for his “shocking and hypocritical” silence and lack of action in the scandal to date. Deutch’s letter is posted here.
The email sent from Bennett M. Miller, Assistant General Counsel at the Florida Department of State yesterday, 10/2/2012, to Florida county Supervisors of Elections, cautioning them to safely secure any questionable registration forms in case they are needed to “become evidence used in court”, follows in full below…
To: SOEContacts
Cc: Detzner, Kenneth W.; cindysanz@fdle.state.fl.us; Cate, Chris
Subject: Strategic Allied Consulting
Supervisors,
Thank you for your diligence in implementing the new 3rd Party Voter Registration requirements as required by law. As you may have heard, irregularities have been reported in several counties regarding a vendor, Strategic Allied Consulting, who was working under a contract with the Republican Party of Florida.
On Friday, the Department forwarded a complaint against Strategic Allied Consulting to FDLE for investigation. I have copied Chief Inspector Cindy Sanz from FDLE on this message.
At this time we are asking the Supervisors in all counties to take the following actions:
1. If you have not already done so, please begin the process of reviewing all of the registrations in your possession that were submitted with the 3P-11-93 number. Please review them again for any irregularities you might question. We recommend that you archive or file those registrations into two groups and separate them away from other registrations. The first group should be the registrations that you have reviewed and determined do not need further review. The second group should be the registrations that you have identified as having irregularities, missing information, or otherwise cause you concern about the authenticity of the registrations. Obviously, if you do not have any concerns about irregularities in your county, there will only be one group. Once your review is complete, we ask that you store these registrations in a secure place. Please limit access to the registrations to yourselves and a trusted member of your staff. At some point, these registrations may become evidence used in court, so it is important for you to take steps to protect them from tampering. If you are unable to secure the registrations to your satisfaction, please contact me and I will provide you with a few suggestions.
2. After you have finished your review, we ask that you contact Chief Inspector Sanz and provide her with copies of each registration that contains an irregularity. If the person has already voted, be sure to indicate that in your packet. Under normal conditions, FDLE would conduct their own review and that may occur at a later date. However, because voting has already begun, it is vital that we identify all of the registrants that might experience difficulty in casting a ballot, so that we can contact them and make every effort to avoid any complications at the polls. The Department will also be undertaking additional efforts to identify affected registrants and will provide you and FDLE with that information if it becomes available.
3. If you reported registration irregularities by Strategic or RPOF to your local State Attorney’s Office, we ask that you provide to Agent Sanz the contact information for the investigator that has been assigned to your case so that FDLE can coordinate their efforts and avoid duplicate investigations.
The Department will provide additional guidance in the future to assist you with minimizing any disruption that may result at the polls. In the meantime, if you are still conducting poll worker training sessions, you may want to include special emphasis on address changes, signature verification, and other procedures.
Sincerely,
Bennett M. Miller
Assistant General Counsel – Elections
Florida Department of State
The same bunch came into Nevada in 2004 and destroyed democratic voter registration and absolutely nothing was done about it. Hopefully Florida will deliver some consequences but I doubt it. I Hate to sound cynical but it was stunning to see them just walk away from what they did here.
PLEASE … Why are we using third party organizations to register people to vote. There is simply too much chance of refusing to register a voter if you don’t like their party affliation and that just isn’t right.
Here’s the thing… even if this is true in the worst case scenario, it’s barely 1/100th of the registration fraud perpetrated by ACORN. And it wouldn’t be a problem if we had voterID at the polls… which you oppose, right?
I’m constantly being told that there’s no such thing as voter fraud, yet here it is…? And I’m told that checking IDs is racist and wouldn’t accomplish anything… but here, it would. So which is it?
Brad, you are a true hero for democracy. GOP ID laws, and myriad shenanigans should have caused a media UPROAR, months ago. But that’s not what they do anymore. You predicted (and I agreed) that this monkey business wouldn’t stop with Palm Beach county, and here we are!!
“0BAMA http://t.co/5YtrSwG5 BiDEN””Ž http://t.co/Qt6OTyhw“Ž http://t.co/u4iwEyVd“Ž http://t.co/lnoNf2G0“Ž http://t.co/Plrrom0Y“Ž #0WS
The voting audience must be pure, but the candidates need not be pure?
It is looking like an alchemy thingy at the moment.
I live in Florida and I can assure you that no agency will do ANYTHING… the republican attorney general Pam Bondi et al have the back of any Republican who gets in trouble.
NOTHING WILL HAPPEN…I guarantee it.
I agree with Phil @7. Nothing will actually come of this “investigation.” It will be closed without any action being taken, there will “not be enough evidence” or something like that. No one will EVER be held accountable for this.
JROBINSON@3-
You are talking out your ass. And you’re lazy.
I’m tired of clowns like you coming in here and spouting the same old completely wrong bullshit. Take a little goddamn responsibility for learning what reality looks like and go find for yourself all the tons of evidence that proves you incorrect on every single thing you say. Nothing scarier than ignorance in action.
Here, I’ll give you a little help on where to start looking–show us all a single(got that? a SINGLE)example of Acorn enabled voter fraud. (hint–you won’t be able to find one cuz 1. there isn’t any; and 2. the current topic is NOT “voter” fraud. It’s voter registration fraud, which Acorn didn’t commit either. You need to show us that you understand that, why it’s true, and the difference between the two types of fraud.)
Good luck and go do a little goddamn homework.
Then, please come back and try again.
Did Fokkks News mention this yet? Fascism is goose stepping its way across Merca.
If debate polls are any indication, it looks like it’ll be President Mitt Romney and that they didn’t need to resort to registration fraud and voter suppression after all.
I’m hoping that Mitt Romney is just posing as an extremist to win votes but will be somewhat more moderate as he supposedly was as Governor of Massachusetts.
Anyhow, the record has to be set straight about ACORN for the masses to see instead of the obfuscation and lies of NYT and the rest of the mainstream media. A theatrical release documentary needs to be produced about it. Right now, fascists are trying to utilize the current GOP registration fraud for they’re own ends. See .. jrobinson post #3, who — like the mainstream media — mixed-up voter fraud and registration fraud and wrote this factually wrong statement,
jrobinson @3 wrote:
You should be very upset, jrobinson, at the right-wing propagandists who bombarded the airwaves with their scurrilous and unsupported charges against ACORN,
On March 10, 2010, in The Real Targets of the ACORN Smear Campaigns: Verifiable Truth, American Democracy we reported:
In that same article, we quoted Mark Twain: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
JROBINSON @3–
Here’s another hint-
If I get you to register to vote and then I throw away your registration cuz I don’t like your party affiliation, what the hell good is it gonna do to show anyone your perfectly valid photo ID when you go to vote? You’re not on the rolls so you’re not registered. Having a valid photo ID would not change that in the slightest. Does you having a valid photo ID prevent me from sabotaging your right to vote by throwing away your registration? Nope.
Are you getting any of this, yet?
Sorry, if I seem angry and impatient. It’s just that I’m angry and impatient cuz I keep hearing the same nonsense over and over and over….Whoever is fucking with your head is very good at it cuz people keep on showing up with the same misperceptions. And these lies amd misconceptions are so easily refuted. The information is right out there.
Well, at least it’s right here at BradBlog. Been here for years.
The trolls… they’re EVERYWHERE!
Here we have “Jrobinson@3” and “Adam” regurgitating nearly the exact same totally false crap, and even quoting and reinforcing each other. Trolls. Brad could probably confirm those two user posts came from the same IP address.
GOTP-aligned ALEC spends years pushing VoterID laws to combat an “epidemic” of voter fraud. But the fact is, there has never been any significant voter fraud. Now, it appears the same goons are bound and determined to create significant voter fraud, so they can say, “I told you so.”
Isn’t that nice of them to finally create the problem, after they’ve already solved it?
Yes, I realize that voter registration fraud, and voter fraud, are two different things. But consider this: THEY probably don’t understand that difference.
comment #15–
Adam @ 12 is not saying the same thing as Robinson @ 3 at all. He’s saying the opposite.
Remember, @)))@##$$% , 2000 Election? Florida and their FRAUDS. of REPUBLICANS !!! JUST REMEMBER!!
.. David Lasagna said on 10/4/2012 @ 5:25 pm PT…
Thanks for clarifying that, David, and I unequivocally confirm it. In reading my post, I could see how it could be misconstrued. I should have phrased my meaning more clearly. Not everyone can present these or research them as well as Brad Friedman, so his efforts should be supported his in every way possible — monetarily, online (eg on http://www.pinterest.com), and offline in the physical world as well.
Are there any idea of the extent of the problem? Specifically do we have any idea of how many people were registered by Strategic in each state and how many were registered by party?
Can we make a numbers comparison between Strategic and Acorn?
Finally, are any of those registrations being withheld?
I am a Floridian and the republican party has controlled this state for decades and they are corrupt to the bone. If anyone is interested, a professor named Robert Altemeyer studied how the rightwing is manipulated so easily since 1966 and it is near impossible to open their eyes. I have read it twice and it is frightening. He has put his book ONLINE FREE as a warning. Check it out if you would like. Theauthoritarians.com