Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 03:19 pm
Republicans are running from Nathan Sproul and Strategic Allied Consulting as fast as they can, but even as they sever ties, ten counties in Florida alone are now reporting possible fraudulent voter registration forms turned in by the group hired by the Republican Party.
Yesterday, the RNC, along with State Republicans in Florida, North Carolina and Colorado, fired Nathan Sproul’s firm following reports that 106 questionable voter registration forms were submitted to Palm Beach County’s Supervisor of Elections, Susan Bucher by a Strategic Allied Consulting employee. That investigation is now mushrooming with ten counties reporting possibly suspect forms.
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Sproul was hired by the Bush Campaign to register Republican voters and misplace or destroy Democratic voters in 2004. For his services, Sproul was paid eight million dollars.
The Romney campaign and State level Republicans in several battle ground states hired strategic Allied Consulting, one of Sproul’s voter registration businesses in several of the battleground states.
Yesterday,
Michael Isikoff reported that two Florida counties are investigating possible voter registration fraud committed by Sproul’s firm, Strategic Allied Consulting. That number has now grown to cover ten counties in Florida. So far, the RNC paid the firm 2.9 million dollars to register voters in this election cycle.
Isikof quoted The RNC’s communications director, Sean Spicer:
We’ve made it clear we’re not doing business with these guys anymore,” said Spicer. ”We’ve come out pretty strong against this kind of stuff — and we have zero tolerance for this.
Via email, Romney campaign spokesperson Sarah Pompei, told Isikoff,
We used this vendor for signature gathering services during the primary but have not used them since 2011.
Florida’s State Republican Chairman said in a statement reported by the Washington Post,
We immediately informed the Republican National Committee that we were terminating the contract with the voter-registration vendor we hired at their request because there is no place for voter-registration fraud in Florida.
In North Carolina, WRAL reports that Democrats were getting ready to expose the State Republican Party’s association with Sproul and Strategic Allied Consultants before North Carolina GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood emailed the following message to them:
The NCGOP takes any threat to the voting process very seriously. We have terminated our relationship with Strategic Allied Consultants.
Lockwood also told WRAL the North Carolina GOP does not have another vendor to provide voter registration services in the state.
According to WRAL, Rep. Larry Hall [D} intended to release this statement.
North Carolina Republicans have spared no time or expense in their efforts to limit democracy and keep North Carolinians out of the democratic process. North Carolina is fortunate that Democrats fought against GOP efforts to pass discriminatory voter ID laws. Now Republicans are using this unethical and shady firm to try to get a leg up in this election because they know North Carolinians aren’t interested in their message of slashing education to pay for more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. I am calling on the North Carolina Republican Party to denounce this group and their shameful tactics and to immediately fire this firm.
Colorado GOP Chairman, Ryan Call told The Denver Post his Party hired Strategic Allied Consultants to register voters. They were also planning to use the firm’s services to get out the vote. As was the case with Florida and North Carolina, the decision to fire Strategic Allied Consultants was a direct result of news about alleged voter registration fraud in Palm Beach County.
The Colorado Republican party has to have zero tolerance for anything that would suggest fraud,” Call said. “When we were made aware of that, we severed ties.
The outcome of investigations in Florida remains to be seen. However, the attention to this case in Florida already reaped benefits for voters and the election system. By exposing this case of Voter Registration fraud – a form of election fraud, Sproul has been stopped, at least for now, and hopefully for the duration of this campaign season.
Of course, it’s always possible that Sproul will reappear with a new company name.
Former contributor.
