I said it before, & I'll say it again, Republicans will stop at nothing to steal this election....

This is exactly why the Democratic party has 10,000 lawyers lined up & ready to fight!

Note: when clinking on link now it goes to different story, below is the article.....

Republican Voter Drive Accused of Tossing Cards

In several battleground states across the country, a
consulting firm funded by the Republican National
Committee has been accused of deceiving would-be
voters and destroying Democratic voter registration
cards.

Arizona-based Sproul & Associates is under
investigation in Oregon and Nevada over claims that
canvassers hired by the company were instructed to
register only Republicans and to get rid of
registration forms completed by Democrats.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats in the state House of
Representatives have asked the attorney general to
investigate complaints from former Sproul canvassers
who said they had been instructed to not register
Democrats. About 40 to 50 also complained they had not
been promptly paid.

In Pittsburgh, library patrons protested that Sproul
employees were pressuring people to register as
Republicans at tables set up outside a Carnegie
Library branch.

``We treat these complaints very seriously,'' said
Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. The
Democratic office-holder said three complaints were
filed with election officials throughout the state. He
declined to provide details, citing the continuing
investigation.

Substitute teacher Adam Banse wanted a summer job with
flexible hours, so he signed up to knock on doors in
suburban Minneapolis and register people to vote.

He quit after two hours. ``They said if you bring back
a bunch of Democratic cards, you'll be fired,'' Banse
contends. ``At that point, I said, `Whoa. Something's
wrong here.'''

Nathan Sproul, a former head of Arizona's Republican
Party and the state's Christian Coalition branch,
denies any wrongdoing and accuses Democrats of making
things up.

``This is all about making accusations,'' Sproul said
Thursday. ``They allege fraud where none exists and
get the media to cover it.''

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Heather
Layman responded that her party accepts all voters,
and she accused the Democratic Party of operating
under this mandate: ``If no sign of voter fraud
exists, make it up, manipulate the media into covering
baseless charges and spread fear.''

Sproul declined to name the states in which his
company conducted registration drives. His political
consulting firm was founded last year and has received
nearly $500,000 from the RNC since July, according to
federal election records.

Former canvassers such as Banse have come forward in
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Oregon in the
past two weeks alleging they were told to register
only Republicans and to ``walk away'' from people who
said they intended to vote for Democrat John Kerry.

Some said Democratic registration forms had been
thrown out or ripped up.

It is illegal to tamper with voter registration cards,
which are numbered and issued by local election
officials. In some states, including Oregon, such acts
are felonies.

Eric Russell of Las Vegas told The Associated Press
that he watched a Sproul supervisor tear up eight to
10 registration forms completed by Democrats and
managed to grab some of the shredded documents as
evidence. State officials are investigating his claim.

Russell said that Voters Outreach of America, the name
under which Sproul employees operated in Nevada and
other states, owes him hundreds of dollars for
registering residents but refuses to pay him.

Sproul called Russell simply a disgruntled employee.

Prompted by Russell's accusations, Clark County
Democrats unsuccessfully went to court last week to
try to persuade a state judge to reopen voter
registration in their county, which encompasses Las
Vegas.

In West Virginia, Lisa Bragg said she refused a sorely
needed $9-an-hour job to register voters after
attending an orientation session conducted by Sproul
employees.

Like Banse in Minnesota, she said canvassers were
discouraged from registering Democrats and were told
to misrepresent themselves as poll takers.

Bragg, who filed a complaint earlier this week with
the West Virginia secretary of state's office, said
Friday that canvassers were given a script that read
at the bottom, ``Our goal is to register
Republicans.''

She called the registration drive dishonest, adding,
``I believe everyone has the right to vote. Even
though I'm a Democrat, I would have registered
Republicans to vote.''

A similar incident was reported in Oregon in
September, when the manager of Medford library
headquarters refused a Sproul request to register
voters after learning the firm was affiliated with
Republicans.




-- Modified on 10/23/2004 2:54:19 PM