This is huge....
Hundreds of cases of voter election fraud under investigation in Florida. It's a GOP voter's worst nightmare. Except it was the Republican party that paid for it, $3 million dollars worth.
Here's the nuts and bolts from Michael Isikoff:
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.
(they should have said "election" fraud as many have pointed out in comments)
More:
....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.
And
"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 LA Times has more:
The RNC’s rapid decision to distance itself from the company derailed a major voter registration drive just six weeks before the presidential election, which could hinge on voter turnout in about eight battleground states. It also comes as Republicans around the country have sought to make voter fraud an issue, in part by pressing for voter identification laws.
In Florida, the state party fired the firm on Tuesday after election workers in Palm Beach County discovered numerous registration forms that appeared to be filled out in the same handwriting, some including wrong addresses and birthdays. Some of the forms switched addresses and party registrations, including changes from Democratic or independent to Republican, said county elections supervisor Susan Bucher.
And it might be more than just Florida:
The company helped identify 106 forms submitted by the same worker. Bucher turned them over to Palm Beach County prosecutors, who have begun a criminal investigation.
Five Republican state parties, all in key battleground states, recorded payments to the firm, often soon after large transfers from the national Republican Party.
In Nevada, for example, the RNC transferred $167,000 to the state party on July 25. The next day, the state party made a nearly identical payment -- $166,665— to Strategic Allied Consulting.
A similar pattern occurred in Florida. On July 12, the same day the Florida GOP received $667,000 from the national Republican party, it paid Strategic Allied Consulting $667,597.
In all, the consulting firm received at least $3.1 million in July and August from the Republican parties of Florida, Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado.
UPDATE A commenter below asks what action people can take. How about help spread this story so more news organizations take notice. You can spread this diary around, Tweet, Digg, etc. But also these two:
(UPDATE 2: I changed the two stories to the ones below, one from McClatchy and one from Maddowblog. These are already on the Reddit top politics list at number 9 and 12 respectively, as I type this. Let's move them up the list!)
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/...
And, to make conservative heads explode, here's a Fox story: Forget the Fox story, it predictably ignores the RNC/Romney angle.
http://www.foxnews.com/...
Go to those sites, Digg the stories, Reddit the stories, email the stories, Tweet the stories, Facebook the stories.
8:51 PM PT: Their tactic included registering dead voters. Well, that GOP meme is coming back to bite them in the ass.
http://www.bradblog.com/...
Fri Sep 28, 2012 at 5:13 AM PT: Title changed to "Election fraud" instead of "Voter fraud".
Fri Sep 28, 2012 at 5:18 AM PT: Romney campaign also has ties to this firm.
http://elections.americablog.com/...