DA probes possible Ward 5 voter fraud

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

The Clark County District Attorney's office is investigating possible voter fraud in the Las Vegas' Ward 5 district.

The Clark County Elections Department has found 30 to 35 voter registrations for Ward 5 were submitted by the same registration assistant, but at least six of those were submitted without the knowledge of the people they represented.

"Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax -- provided us with information and we have an investigator out there looking at it," District Attorney David Roger said. "We are hopeful to finish the investigation within the next few weeks."

Councilman Lawrence Weekly currently represents the district and is up for re-election on April 8. He faces two challengers, Gene Collins and Jefferson Lee.

Lomax said officials uncovered the discrepancies when they found an error on one registration form and, following its procedure, the elections department sent a letter notifying the person of the mistake.

The person called Lomax's office saying he was already registered to vote and never filled out a new form.

Lomax said the form also listed a name of someone who allegedly assisted that person to register. Election officials then looked to see if that person had assisted others.

"We found 30 to 35 other forms where they were all allegedly assisted by the same person," Lomax said. "Those that had phone numbers on them, we called, and in every case they hadn't registered and didn't know the person who allegedly helped them. At that point we turned it into the DA's office."

Roger said his office does not take these matters lightly.

"We take these matters seriously because it strikes at the heart of the democratic process," Roger said.