Isn't it funny how the Republican Party always sounds the alarm at the mere thought or possibility of voter fraud, claims that phantom voters lurk everywhere, and yet when actual voter fraud occurs, it's on behalf of Republicans?
Well, it seems it's happened again right here in Florida. The Republican Party of Florida hired a consulting firm to register voters, paying them over $1.3 million to do so, but the forms turned out to be questionable. What began as what the consulting firm behind the registrations claimed was a few bad apples turns out to be an entire organization of them, and it's no longer confined just to Florida. The Republican National Committee also hired the organization for work in other states.
What started in Palm Beach County in Florida, and then spread statewide, has now spread to other states: Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. In other words, swing states. What a coincidence!
The organization behind the questionable voter registration forms of Republican voters is called Strategic Alliance Consulting, and is run by one Nathan Sproul. When confronted with the questionable circumstances, the RPOF fired the company and filed an election fraud complaint against them. Strategic Alliance claimed the problem was just "one individual."
Later after the Republican National Committee also dumped Strategic Alliance, Strategic Alliance put out this statement:
"When the Republican Party of Florida chose to make likely libelous comments about our effort and stated that the Republican National Committee suggested us as the vendor, the RNC was put in the unenviable position of ending a long-term relationship for the sake of staying focused on the election," the company stated.
Yes, these are the same Republicans who cried "voter fraud" claiming ACORN was doing the very same thing, which it wasn't. Also the same Republicans who enacted strict voter registration laws in Florida that for some time prevented the League of Women Voters in Florida and other groups from registering legitimate voters. And yes, the same Republicans whose Governor Rick Scott has been busily trying to purge "non-citizen voters" in Florida (He's carrying out purge 2.0 right now) in spite of the fact that he can barely find more than a handful. These same Republicans are responsible for filing registration forms that, among other things, registered dead people, and changed voters party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
So who exactly is Nathan Sproul and Strategic Alliance Consulting? Sproul is an old hand at this sort of thing. He was hired by the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 for a voter registration drive, then under a firm named Sproul and Associates, he was hired by the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, and guess who else hired him in 2011? Why, that would be Mitt Romney.
On top of all the back and forth finger pointing between Strategic Alliance Consulting, the RPOF and the RNC, there's also this bit of information (Emphasis mine):
Sproul said he created Strategic Allied Consulting at the RNC's request because the party wanted to avoid being publicly linked to the past allegations. The firm was set up at a Virginia address, and Sproul does not show up on the corporate paperwork.
"In order to be able to do the job that the state parties were hiring us to do, the [RNC] asked us to do it with a different company's name, so as to not be a distraction from the false information put out in the Internet," Sproul said.
No wonder, as Sproul has operated under several different names over the years, like: Sproul & Associates as well as Lincoln Strategy Group in addition to those above already mentioned. You can read lots more about Nathan Sproul and his various "consulting" firms here.
An investigation has been launched with the FDLE, and today Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) has written a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott asking him to appoint a bipartisan task force to investigate the accusations and ensure that the integrity of our voting rolls will not be compromised by Strategic Allied Consulting’s deliberately fraudulent voter registration operations. After all, Scott claimed of his own voter purge that he only wanted to make sure of the integrity of the voter roles. Scott has so far been silent on the allegations, and he himself has also been caught up in allegations that he paid an absentee ballot broker $5,000 for "contract labor."
Let's hope the investigations bear fruit, as Sproul has escaped others and gone on to continue all these years. As for a bipartisan investigation launched by Rick Scott, while many won't hold their breath, since other investigations under Scott have had a way of turning up absolutely no wrongdoing on the part of the GOP, we can only hope this time will be the charm.
