10/19/2004 09:02 AM                  ID: 43776
Man Falsified Voter Forms For Crack Cocaine
 Ohio resident Chad Staton, 22, has been arrested and charged with a
5th-degree felony for falsifying more than 100 voter registration forms for
an NAACP voter drive worker in exchange for crack cocaine.
 Georgianne Pitts, 41, who worked for the NAACP on their voter registration
drive, admitted to paying Staton in crack cocaine for falsifying the forms.
A search of Staton's home found even more voter registration forms and drug
items.
 Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said there is "an effort to
steal Ohio's election" that is "being driven exclusively by interest groups
working to register Democratic voters."
  Source: www.toledoblade.com




-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Baier [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 3:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: Republican Group Accused of Voter Fraud


Democracy???? !!!!
No wonder the Democrats hired so many lawyers. They need to.
Seems like this is a 3-world country or a banana-republic.

Republican Group Accused of Voter Fraud
By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

Substitute teacher Adam Banse wanted a summer job with flexible hours, so
he signed up to knock on doors in suburban Minneapolis and register people
to vote. He quit after two hours.

"They said if you bring back a bunch of Democratic cards, you'll be fired,"
Banse contends. "At that point, I said, `Whoa. Something's wrong here.'"

He isn't alone. In several battleground states across the country, a
consulting firm funded by the Republican National Committee has been
accused of deceiving would-be voters and destroying Democratic voter
registration cards.

Arizona-based Sproul & Associates is under investigation in Oregon and
Nevada over claims that canvassers hired by the company were instructed to
register only Republicans and to get rid of registration forms completed by
Democrats.

"We treat these complaints very seriously," said Oregon Secretary of State
Bill Bradbury. The Democratic office-holder said three complaints were
filed with election officials throughout the state. He declined to provide
details, citing the continuing investigation.

Nathan Sproul, a former head of Arizona's Republican Party and the state's
Christian Coalition branch, denies any wrongdoing and accuses Democrats of
making things up.

"This is all about making accusations," Sproul said Thursday. "They allege
fraud where none exists and get the media to cover it."

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Heather Layman responded that her
party accepts all voters, and she accused the Democratic Party of operating
under this mandate: "If no sign of voter fraud exists, make it up,
manipulate the media into covering baseless charges and spread fear."

Sproul declined to name the states in which his company conducted
registration drives. His political consulting firm was founded last year
and has received nearly $500,000 from the RNC since July, according to
federal election records.

Former canvassers such as Banse have come forward in West Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Nevada and Oregon in the past two weeks alleging they were
told to register only Republicans and to "walk away" from people who said
they intended to vote for Democrat John Kerry.

Some said Democratic registration forms had been thrown out or ripped up.

It is illegal to tamper with voter registration cards, which are numbered
and issued by local election officials. In some states, including Oregon,
such acts are felonies.

Eric Russell of Las Vegas told The Associated Press that he watched a
Sproul supervisor tear up eight to 10 registration forms completed by
Democrats and managed to grab some of the shredded documents as evidence.
State officials are investigating his claim.

Russell said that Voters Outreach of America, the name under which Sproul
employees operated in Nevada and other states, owes him hundreds of dollars
for registering residents but refuses to pay him.

Sproul called Russell simply a disgruntled employee.

Prompted by Russell's accusations, Clark County Democrats unsuccessfully
went to court last week to try to persuade a state judge to reopen voter
registration in their county, which encompasses Las Vegas.

In West Virginia, Lisa Bragg said she refused a sorely needed $9-an-hour
job to register voters after attending an orientation session conducted by
Sproul employees.

Like Banse in Minnesota, she said canvassers were discouraged from
registering Democrats and were told to misrepresent themselves as poll
takers.

Bragg, who filed a complaint earlier this week with the West Virginia
secretary of state's office, said Friday that canvassers were given a
script that read at the bottom, "Our goal is to register Republicans."

She called the registration drive dishonest, adding, "I believe everyone
has the right to vote. Even though I'm a Democrat, I would have registered
Republicans to vote."

In Pennsylvania this week, former Sproul canvassers said they had been
instructed to not register Democrats. About 40 to 50 also complained they
had not been paid.

In Pittsburgh, library patrons protested that Sproul employees were
pressuring people to register as Republicans at tables set up outside a
Carnegie Library branch.

A similar incident was reported in Oregon in September, when the manager of
Medford library headquarters refused a Sproul request to register voters
after learning the firm was affiliated with Republicans.

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