This is big, from reader
MK:
Found the following links which all seem to point to the same company that is suspected of tearing up Democratic voter registration forms in Las Vegas. It has set up registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada and is accused of the same things in most if not all of these states. Sproul & Associates is a Republican consulting firm run by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican party and Arizona Christian Coalition.
Nevada:
Voters Outreach of America AKA America Votes tears up Democratic voter registration forms in Nevada.
Oregon:
Company claiming affiliation with non-partisan 'America Votes' to register voters in Oregon is actually GOP consulting firm Sproul & Associates, Inc.
West Virginia and Pennsylvania:
Sproul & Associates AKA America Votes workers in WV and PA refuse to register Kerry voters.
Oregon
Democrats in Oregon have complained that canvassers for Arizona based Sproul & Associates have been pressuring residents to register as Republicans so that they can get paid.
Arizona
Arizona Nader campaign was assisted in its petition drive by an unlikely figure: the ultra-conservative former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, Nathan Sproul.
About Sproul:
Good background story on Sproul and his political track record, cached on Google.
The link:
Here is the direct link between Sproul and Voters Outreach of America.
According to several sources, two of the contractors Sproul hired to oversee petition gathering for No Taxpayer Money For Politicians -- Aaron "A.J." James, who directs Voters' Outreach of America, and Diane Burns -- were also paid by Sproul to get as many signatures as possible for Nader.
Good stuff, so far. But the reader then asks the key question -- who is paying for these efforts?
The answer?
KLAS-TV, Las Vegas:
"The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee."
CareerBuild.com listing:
Help wanted ad for Voters Outreach of America says "Paid for by the Republican National Committee".
The Republican Party is funding these efforts. The link is direct and unambiguous.
Meanwhile, Bob Johnson has got a diary with more information on this developing scandal. As he says,
[C]ritical is the fact that Sproul and his organization misrepresented themselves to voters as a legitimate, nonpartisan GOTV organization. That is fraud, my friends.
The Googlemonkeys are ferreting out all sort of great info. Might be time for a dKosopedia entry on this to consolidate all this info.
(Two great examples of participatory journalist at its finest.)
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