First we get news out of a local Las Vegas news affiliate from CBS that an outfit called
Voters' Outreach of America is caught trashing voter registration forms filled out by people trying to register to vote as Democrats. But while running down this outfit, they skipped town on their office space rent, and moved out of state (Nevada), and the CBS affiliate indicates that they might have moved their operation to Oregon.
We also learn not too long ago, that Sproul & Associates, which is based out of AZ, was misrepresenting itself as being under contract with the legitimate nonpartisan group America Votes, while trying to get permission to do voter registration sign-ups in Southern Oregon libraries. A sharp librarian down in Medford double-checks with America Votes, and finds out that the Sproul group which had sent a letter to the public library seeking the permission, are not under contract or affiliated with the non-partisan group America Votes. It should also be noted that because of this, some confusion is circulating in the news media and conflating America Votes with the shady Sproul outfit.
We now know that Sproul & Associates is a directly funded RNC consultancy firm.
Then we learn that a "traveling team" hired signature gatherer is caught in downtown Portland's Pioneer Square, the night before Edwards is planned to hold a debate watching rally, refusing to register Democrats, and admits to throwing out forms filled out by people registering as such.
This person also admits that the "traveling team" he is with was recently doing registration drives in Nevada. We still don't know if this "traveling team" is connected with either Voters' Outreach of America or not. This has led Oregon Sec. of State Bill Bradbury and Attorney General Hardy Myers to tell news outlets late this evneing that they plan to investigate. Bradbury telling the local news outlet KGW that they are investigating this serious matter, and he appeared to be more than a little pissed to see this sort of fraud taking place. Now it seems the story is being picked up by the AP.
We now find in a past story from The American Prospect that Voters' Outreach of America IS in fact connected with, and was under contract by Sproul and Associates which we know is directly funded by the RNC from FEC records at opensecrets.org. Voters' Outreach of America were under contract by Sproul to do signature gathering in AZ for petition gathering for "No Taxpayer Money For Politicians" petition AND to get Ralph Nader on the ballot in AZ (where he was eventually knocked off the ballot for fraudulent petition signatures).