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Voter registrations possibly trashed: RNC-controlled company shreds Democrat registrations

Former workers say superiors at Voters Outreach of America, aka America Votes Company, shredded Democrat registrations by the hundreds. The company has left Nevada and moved to Oregon.
Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed
 http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595&nav=168XRvNe

(Oct. 12) -- Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.

Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.

The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.

Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.

So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on Election Day are sadly mistaken. We attempted to speak to Voters Outreach but found that its office has been rented out to someone else.

The landlord says Voters Outreach was evicted for non-payment of rent. Another source said the company has now moved on to Oregon where it is once again registering voters. It's unknown how many registrations may have been tossed out, but another ex-employee told Eyewitness News she had the same suspicions when she worked there.

It's going to take a while to sort all of this out, but the immediate concern for voters is to make sure you really are registered.

Call the Clark County Election Department at 455-VOTE orclick here to see if you are registered.

The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
Interesting 12.Oct.2004 22:17

A fraud

Your trust in others can often burn with disappointment. However its unclear if the Dems would do this too as well. All the more reason to hold parties responsible for their lies and actions. Now i wonder if the electorial office would do this too. At least with registering at the elections office you would know.

What is the remedy and recorse?

Reason to believe 12.Oct.2004 22:27

pix

We came in contact at the Max station with someone working for that group. He said he got paid for every republican ballot he brought back...but not democratic. That was the same outfit, Amerika Votes....

And also in oregon too 12.Oct.2004 23:10

redpeter

GO see:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/13/02830/224

it has yet to be confirmed

if this is true, the repugs are is deep trouble, if not finished.


After all these scandals, it makes Nixon look smart!


11.15 pm 12.Oct.2004 23:16

redpeter

lifted from dailykos:

[new] KGW: Registration Fraud! (none / 0)

They interviewed a young man registering voters in downtown Portland who says he would only accept and turn in Republican registrations. This practice is illegal, according to Oregon Secretary of State.
This young kid (probably 18) said he only gets paid for Republican registrations. Oregon Republican Party is denying any connection to this guy.

KGW mentioned that America Votes is alleged to have been involved with registration fraud in Las Vegas. The young man in the story said he and the others in his group have been in Oregon for around 8 days doing registrations and that they were in Las Vegas prior to that.

HOLY SHIT!!! This story had better get some legs. Those poor democrats whose registrations were destroyed--what is their recourse now?


 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/13/02830/224


Bradbury and Hardy to investigate allegations of registration fraud 12.Oct.2004 23:35

redpeter

From KGW website:  http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D85MC9480.html

Bradbury plans to investigate election complaint

10/13/2004

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI / Associated Press


Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and Attorney General Hardy Myers plan to investigate allegations that a paid canvasser might have destroyed voter registration forms.

"There have been allegations made that someone threw out some voter registration forms that had been submitted to them," Bradbury told The Associated Press late Tuesday. "This is a violation of the law and I will meet with the attorney general in the morning to talk about what we can do to pursue this, and to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Bradbury learned of the conduct from KGW-TV, which interviewed Mike Johnson, 20, a canvasser who said he was instructed to only accept Republican registration forms. He told the TV reporter that he "might" destroy forms turned in by Democrats.

"I have never in my five years as secretary of state ever seen an allegation like the one that came up tonight — ever," Bradbury said. "I mean, frankly, it just totally offends me that someone would take someone else's registration and throw it out."

Bradbury said the law requires that groups registering voters submit forms no later than five days after they were filled out. He added that canvassers can't turn away a voter because of his or her party affiliation.

Rory Smith, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party in Oregon, said the young man interviewed by KGW-TV was not in their rolls. "We do not condone this type of behavior," Smith told the Portland-based station.

In Nevada earlier Tuesday, KLAS-TV, a CBS affiliate, interviewed an employee of a private voter registration organization who said hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Democratic registration forms had been destroyed.

Eric Russell, a former Voters Outreach of America employee, told the TV station he had personally witnessed his supervisor take out Democratic registration forms from the pile and shred them.

A spokesman for the Las Vegas bureau of the FBI said he did not know if an investigation had been initiated.


dems: different tactics, same sesults 13.Oct.2004 03:40

nader04

dems ballot status dirty tricks have the same results: denial of voting rights

Kerry cannot be rewarded with a victory, because a precedence would be set. Ballot status denial thru "dirty tricks" will be a permanent fixture in future campaigns, with impact 3rd parties.

hopefully. i can celebrate a kerry loss,even better, if nader provides the margin of defeat.

to nader04 13.Oct.2004 12:24

zero_sum_0g

last I heard nader doesn't even have enough ballot access to win the electoral votes necessary to become pResident.

I realize you're trolling, but...

Don't we have a common enemy in the Republican government who is attacking our freedoms? Can't we agree to work together to stop this madness?

we can always count on Bradbury to uphold democracy 13.Oct.2004 12:47

ex-democrat voter

So long as it's in the interest of the democratic party.

"Don't we have a common enemy in the Republican government who is attacking our freedoms?"

That's a funny take on history. So far as I see it, with the historical record, we have a common enemy in the democrats and republicans who have worked hand in hand to attack our freedoms.

"Can't we agree to work together to stop this madness?"

I have always agreed to work with whoever wants to stop this madness. Unfortunately, since Kerry is promising more madness, supporting him is counter-productive to that effort.

Unless you're arguing that a Kerry presidency is the only way to get the democrats to realize how bad Kerry is. That might be true, but I don't think the Kerry supporters are ever going to wake up. The sheer hypocrisy of the democrats in this election has often times dwarfed that of the republicans, and that's saying something.

If someone had told me 20 years ago that the democrats would be passionately embracing a candidate who by all appearances is running the campaign of a republican (more police, pro-war, supporting restrictions on civil liberties, opposing equal rights) I would have thought they were crazy. Well, I guess time is always the best teacher.

What's also interesting to me is that this story broke, what, weeks ago? No one seemed to pay attention then. I guess timing is important when playing politics.

 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/298012.shtml