According to a news station in Las Vegas, a private voter registration group funded by the RNC recruited new voters outside malls and grocery stores in Nevada, then tore up and threw away the Democratic registration forms.
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.
Amazing. Outrageous. Infuriating.
Is this the party that you want in charge of our country? If not, make sure your voter registration is properly recorded, and be sure to vote on November 2nd.
Just because they are funded by the RNC does not mean that the RNC approves of this behavior. Don't generalize that all of a group is bad just because a few radical ones behave in an irresponsible manner.
Yes, I'm sure we'll see a denunciation of this by the RNC any day now... right? ... right?
Reno has become the number three media market in the country this election cycle, as Nevada's 5 electoral votes have become hotly pursued. (Can't wait until this election is over.)
About a month ago in Washoe County (Reno), a stack of registration forms ended up on the Registrar of Voters desk. They were all filled out in the same handwriting, and were all registered as Republicans. The Registrar investigated, and discovered that the 3000 new registrants were all fictitious.
November 3rd can't come soon enough, if you ask me.
Actually it's looking at the moment more like a DNC disinformation campaign, see Instapundit and elsewhere.
If so then it didn't take much to get you go to for it, did it?
And more!
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1963&e=5&u=/ap/20041013/ap_on_el_pr/nevada_voter_challenge
ZF, I went to Instapundit's site and saw nothing on this topic; can you provide specific links to support your comment? I posted only after seeing information on a Las Vegas local news station site that indicated that they'd investigated the claim.
I'd be delighted to find that this is untrue, but I'm seeing plenty of supporting evidence and nothing to the contrary at this point.
Interesting links provided here.
Apologies, my bad, I should have cited a different law professor blog:
http://volokh.com/
"Like Eugene, I was going to post on the Nevada vote fraud story.
But then I saw Kerry Spot's post pointing out that the supposed Republican leaning Nevada vote organization appears to be part of the Democratic get-out-the-vote drive, including ACORN, who has been implicated in voting fraud charges in other states..."
"The Nevada account could be real Republican dirty tricks, or it could be Democratic dirty tricks: throwing out some Democratic registrations and tipping off the press where to find them. I am skeptical that an organization backed by ACORN, the AFL-CIO, and Emily's List would be tossing out Democratic ballots except to trick the press. But stranger things have happened..."
ZF, I looked at the Volokh Conspiracy post, which in turn points to this Kerry Spot post on National Review's site. That post has been updated to reflect the fact that the TV station got the affiliation wrong--the VOA group that's being accused of fraud _claimed_ to be part of America Votes (the group that the AFL-CIO and Emily's List are associated with) but in fact is not.
At the moment, I've seen no credible evidence suggesting that this is "DNC disinformation," and lots of credible information, including this article from an Oregon paper athese posts by librarians in a national literacy project indicating that the organization in question has been consistently fraudulent in its practices.
In addition, there's this list of RNC contributions to Sproul & Associates, the company running the "VOA" registration efforts.
I have no problem with fact-checking, but it seems to me that all the fact-checking is simply revealing that this GOP-funded group has in fact been as bad as they've been painted, or worse.
It's good to see everyone posting in a civil manner. It seems that the two biggest voter fraud complaints right now are with this Nevada Voter Outreach group, and with ACORN. However, Voter Outreach in NV is sponsored by the RNC (with temps hired and paid for by them). The accusations being made about ACORN are against a single woman who apparently was trying to help her boyfriend make some extra money by signing up fictitious names. Of the two, the situation in NV presents a far more systemic problem with the RNC.
After hearing that many Nevada voters who thought they were registered were not, I decided to check with the Clark County election department. I found that my correct address is NOT on file even though I re-registered at the DMV when I renewed my driver license last year.
After telling someone about this they said the "Motor Voter" program has been plagued with problems. I am deeply unhappy about this because I want to vote. Any ideas about what I should do?
By the way, I am a registered Democrat.
Yes, the "Motor Voter" program has had some problems in the Kansas City area. When I first moved to KC and got my driver's license, someone at the DOT took the liberty of marking "No" on the part of the form that asks if you want to register to vote. I don't think this is an example of fraud so much as clerical laziness. However, the end result is the same.
In the NY Times, Paul Krugman argues that Republicans are guilty of this sort of thing more often than Democrats.
Paul Krugman argues many things but usually with a remarkable slant. However, this news article is truly outrageous. Why aren't we hearing the RNC denouncing this naked exploitation of executive powers?
Less facetiously, I agree that we need not jump all over any such news story, (whether from the right, such as Kerry allegedly pulling a note from his coat, or Bush's dorsal antenna) especially where such alleged criminal activity or violation of protocol is easily prosecuted -- as it should be. However, to chastise the RNC for not talking to this is premature.
The eagerness to point to such things and call it a smoking gun diminishes a more sober debate about what's at stake this election year. The conspiracy game is too easy to play and to unprofitable to sustain.
i really dont have a comment,i just want to know whats going on?i tried to email cnn but it will not go through.my name is crystal smith,my husband and i just moved here from fla,we were allready regestered in fla and we got in all these cards and stuff that say register to vote,so ok,i needed a new registration card any way cause i lost mine in fla,and i think i voted independent last,i wanted to vote for bush,so did my husband but i keep getting those in the mail register to vote.i honestly dont know what these people here in lasvegas nv are doing. honestly crystal smith
The Texas Redistricting plan is a much more open example of what the RNC really thinks about democracy. This was a redistricting plan passed after the a prior one was passed and implemented.
The plan was taken to court, but the court didn't see any reason to rule on the matter before the election. They will rule after the election and even if the court throws it out, the govenor will just reappoint them. Then, they have incumbancy the next time around. Too slick.
David Locke
Has anyone heard any updates to this? You prob. wont believe me but the kid that the Vegas story was about was my brother and we have not seen anything about this in a very long time. And yes the story was true I helped him tape the ripped up reg. cards back together for Mr. Knapp & the FBI to see. e-mail me with any new info please bugginfelix@hotmail.com