At long last - proven systematic voter fraud. And it's the Republican party doing it.

Duck Soup

Oh you're going to love this one. The problem with the raft of voter suppression efforts by many Republican state legislatures - voter ID, restrictions on voter registration drives etc - was that there was very, very little proven voter fraud to point to.

Well, at last we have one shiny new example of it. And it was being done by the firm with the exclusive contract from the Republican National Committee to sign up new voters in five key swing states - Florida, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia.

Virginia based company, Strategic Allied Consulting, is owned by a guy named Nathan Sproul. Sproul had owned another voter registration company, contracted to work for the Republican party in 2004. His activities then got him investigated by the Justice department and also the attorney generals in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon after widespread allegations of fraud.

When asked to work on the Republican's behalf this year, the RNC requested that Sproul change the name of his company, so it wouldn't bring all the baggage the name of his previous company brought with it.

But he soon lived down to his reputation. The Republican voter registration drives in all 5 swing states have ceased completely as of today after 108 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms were identified in Palm Beach County. Election official noticed similar hand-writing on the signatures for different applications, bogus addresses and incomplete social security numbers.

If it was a rogue electioneer presumably the RNC would have just made sure Strategic Allied Consulting fired that individual and continued registering voters. The suspicion must be that Nathan Sproul's company is back up to the old tricks on a systematic basis, hence the immediate cessation of all Republican voter registration drives in five states. The problem for the RNC is that Strategic Allied Consulting had the exclusive contract, so there's no one to take up slack or jump in.

On the plus side, the Republicans can now say that voter fraud has been proven to be real and organized.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/us/politics/suspicious-voter-forms-found-in-10-florida-counties.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-fires-consulting-firm-after-108-questionable-voter-registrations-in-palm-beach-county/2012/09/27/80db8244-0913-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Republicans-End-Swing-State-Voter-Sign-Up-After-3908692.php

In addition to fraudulent voter forms, a young woman, later identified to be working for Strategic Allied Consulting, was also spotted outside a supermarket in Colorado trying to sign up only Republican voters and dishonestly claiming she was working for the County Clerk's Office. Oops.

Overheal

When asked to work on the Republican's behalf this year, the RNC requested that Sproul change the name of his company, so it wouldn't bring all the baggage the name of his previous company brought with it.

Ah, rebranding.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-15-2009/reagraham-lincool

V_Moth

Is this the same case as referenced here?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056763104

Duck Soup

V_Moth wrote: »

Is this the same case as referenced here?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056763104

It's the same girl, but the case has now grown from a lone incident in one location to a pattern of various strategies of voter fraud and malpractice that has now been traced back to one company - Nathan Sproul's Strategic Allied Consulting.

If the RNC thought it was a handful of rogue operatives acting on their own misguided initiatives, they would have sacked them and carried on registering new voters in the swing states.

It now turns out that the girl wasn't working for the County Clerk's Office but Strategic Allied Consulting. All the other voting irregularities can also be traced back to Strategic Allied Consulting.

The RNC is now saying that they will not be conducting any further voter registration drives in Florida, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia between now and election day. They also claim it doesn't really matter as they were kind of finishing up registration drives anyway.

What amazes me is that the RNC knew damned well of the distinct whiff of fishiness coming from Nathan Sproul-run operations and yet they decided to give him - and only him - the job of overseeing their voter registration efforts in five key battleground states.

If you were the cynical type, you might suspect that the RNC knew the kind of tactics and methods to expect from Sproul and that's why they used him. Surely not.

Amerika

Anyone know what's the status of ACRON?

Mjollnir

Amerika wrote: »

Anyone know what's the status of ACRON?

Ah, sweet irrelevancy and diversion.

Memnoch

Mjollnir wrote: »

Ah, sweet irrelevancy and diversion.

It really is SHAMEFUL how he will never admit any fault or wrongdoing where the GOP is concerned. Shows how little respect he has for the idea of freedom or the democratic process.

Completely bare-faced hypocrisy without even batting an eyelid.

TwoShedsJackson

What is ACRON? Even googling it brings up too many different hits.

Amerika

Memnoch wrote: »

It really is SHAMEFUL how he will never admit any fault or wrongdoing where the GOP is concerned. Shows how little respect he has for the idea of freedom or the democratic process.

Completely bare-faced hypocrisy without even batting an eyelid.

Never? I don't think so.

Amerika

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

What is ACRON? Even googling it brings up too many different hits.

Sorry, it's ACORN, nor ACRON. My bad.

And this might help.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-acorn-voter-fraud/

InTheTrees

Memnoch wrote: »

It really is SHAMEFUL how he will never admit any fault or wrongdoing where the GOP is concerned. Shows how little respect he has for the idea of freedom or the democratic process.

Completely bare-faced hypocrisy without even batting an eyelid.

It is a symptom of the lack of debate in the US for the last few years. Honestly I blame the farce of the "tea party" and the celebration of stupidity.

But look at how they're losing public support. The lack of responsibility for their own ideology and their inability to explain their positions has resulted in people abandoning them in droves.

Amerika

InTheTrees wrote: »

It is a symptom of the lack of debate in the US for the last few years. Honestly I blame the farce of the "tea party" and the celebration of stupidity.

But look at how they're losing public support. The lack of responsibility for their own ideology and their inability to explain their positions has resulted in people abandoning them in droves.

I'll bet the Tea Party still has a better favorable factor than Congress, and just slightly less than the public trust in the mainstream media.

Duck Soup

I wonder when we'll hear all those Republican politicians and conservative talking heads who were apoplectic about ACORN raise their voices in anger and righteous fury about such blatant - and RNC sponsored - Strategic Allied Consulting corruption of the electoral process?

Bearing in mind how they are all about Teh Electoral Integrity, I'm assuming that this will be all over Fox News today.

Amerika

Duck Soup wrote: »

On the plus side, the Republicans can now say that voter fraud has been proven to be real and organized.

Seems they have from the sections of the articles listed I have referenced, and take appropriate steps to correct it when it is brought to their attention.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/us/politics/suspicious-voter-forms-found-in-10-florida-counties.html

Bay County has found eight suspicious forms with the Republican Party registration code connected to Strategic Allied. In Pasco County, three have been found.

The state Republican Party, which paid the company $1.3 million to register voters here, said it would file an elections fraud complaint against Strategic Allied, which is based in Tempe, Ariz.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-fires-consulting-firm-after-108-questionable-voter-registrations-in-palm-beach-county/2012/09/27/80db8244-0913-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

Republicans on Thursday fired a vendor suspected of submitting 108 questionable new voter registrations in Florida’s Palm Beach County, ground zero for disputed ballots in 2000’s presidential race.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Republicans-End-Swing-State-Voter-Sign-Up-After-3908692.php

The Republican National Committee ended efforts to sign up new voters before the deadline in key states for the presidential race because of questions raised over registration applications tied to the party.

I think these type of things, FROM BOTH PARTIES, should be in the news… NOT JUST THOSE STORIES DETRIMENTAL TO THE RNC. Sadly we just can't expect the mainstream media to write a story criticizing anything suspicious the DNC does now can we?

I feel we should take steps to stop all types of voter fraud. Personally, I think we should not have any "Get Out The Vote" or "Registration Signup Efforts" allowed whatsoever, and definitely not sponsored by a political party. If people want to vote, let them figure how to go about doing it… Let people take responsibility for themselves. Also we should require photo ID to vote, or maybe even something like the so-called “Third World Countries” like Mexico have in order to vote. How about that... the US can MOVE UP to Third World status in our voting rules.

Duck Soup

Woah, woah. Hold on tiger. The RNC hired Nathan Sproul knowing that he had been investigated by the Justice Department and three different state Attorney Generals in 2004 for voter fraud, including charges of his company's employees shredding voter registration forms from people who registered as Democrats.

Are you seriously suggesting that they didn't hire Sproul - when they could have had chosen from hundreds of other companies - to conduct swing state voter registration precisely because they knew exactly what they were getting and that what exactly what they wanted?

Amerika

Duck Soup wrote: »

Woah, woah. Hold on tiger. The RNC hired Nathan Sproul knowing that he had been investigated by the Justice Department and three different state Attorney Generals in 2004 for voter fraud, including charges of his company's employees shredding voter registration forms from people who registered as Democrats.

I didn't read the entire article, but I'll take your word for it. Was he only investigated, or charged and tried in court? Regardless, seems to me they might have made an error in hiring him, and promptly fired him when reports of irregularities came out, right? Thank god he wasn't a tax cheet... then he could have gotten a cabinet position in the Obama administration.

Black Swan

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Duck Soup

Amerika wrote: »

I didn't read the entire article, but I'll take your word for it. Was he only investigated, or charged and tried in court? Regardless, seems to me they might have made an error in hiring him, and promptly fired him when reports of irregularities came out, right? Thank god he wasn't a tax cheet... then he could have gotten a cabinet position in the Obama administration.

My point is - and I suspect that we're going to have to agree to disagree on this - that I think the RNC knew full well what kind of an operator that Nathan Sproul was.

I think that was why they hired him.

You can suggest it was an error, promptly corrected. I'd see it as part of a broader strategy of skewing the vote.

On one side, suppress the vote of your opposition via voter ID, voter drive restrictions, curtailing early voting and purging legally registered voters from the voting rolls.

On the other, bump up your own vote by hiring a company that will (illegally) register only new voters who support your own party.

It has the distinct look of a co-ordinated and detailed plan to interfere with the election process itself.

I don't think Sproul and Strategic Allied Consulting were dumped because they went rogue; I think they were dumped because they were caught doing exactly what the RNC expected them to do and they were an embarrassment.

The polite way of putting it would be that it has the appearance of impropriety.

Toshchiy Imperatritsy Vselennoy

The Koch brother in connection to voter fraud going years back..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ie9M2uxDrIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ie9M2uxDrIA