GOP voter registration outfit may have trashed thousands of Democratic registrat

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Tue, 12 Oct 2004 20:48:19 -0700

GOP voter registration outfit may have trashed thousands of

Democratic registrations

 

 

Employees of a private voter registration company say they saw

evidence of fraud. It could mean that thousands of people who think

they are registered, may not be.

 

 

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595 & nav=168XRvNe

 

George Knapp, Investigative Reporter

 

Voter Registrations Trashed

 

Clark County Election Dept.

 

(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 or

 

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.

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