Nevada Democrats file lawsuit against voter registration group

Kirsten Searer and Sito Negron

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

The state Democratic Party filed a lawsuit late Wednesday charging that an untold number of Democrats will lose their right to vote Nov. 2 because a Republican-funded group destroyed their registration forms.

The lawsuit asks that Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax allow Democrats to register to vote beyond the deadline that passed Tuesday if they say they filled out voter registration forms that have since disappeared.

The lawsuit was just one response Wednesday to charges that Voters Outreach of America, a voter registration company funded by the Republican National Committee, recently ripped up voter registration cards submitted by Democrats.

"I witnessed them blatantly completely disenfranchising, taking away voters' rights, and it was specifically Democrats," said Eric Russell, a former employee of Voters Outreach who said he saw employees tear up at least five registration forms from Democrats.

"I'm a registered Republican, but this isn't something I want to see either way, so it's wrong and it needs to stop. And the people who did this need to become accountable for this."

Russell's accusations set off a firestorm in the state and around the nation. Top Democrats argued that Republicans are cheating to win the election, and Republicans maintained that they never sanctioned such behavior.

"This is just another part of their scheme to fraudulently win this election," said Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus.

The Republican National Committee has paid Voters Outreach about $488,959 to register voters in several states, according to the lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie issued a statement saying that the RNC "will continue to employ a zero tolerance policy against voter fraud."

Meanwhile, officials in the Nevada secretary of state's office, the state attorney general's office and the FBI confirmed Wednesday they started looking into the matter and what laws might apply. Even if the allegations are true, it remains unclear what -- if any -- laws were broken.

Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union, said that federal laws make it a crime to interfere with a person's right to vote.

And while it appears that no state law would prevent a private group from refusing to register members of one party or another, Secretary of State Dean Heller said he would "have serious reservations about throwing away registrations that have been filled out."

Heller said his office had asked the federal Justice Department for guidance and said if the allegation is true, it would be a "incredible injustice."

Nevada law considers it a gross misdemeanor to "impede or prevent, by abduction, duress or fraudulent contrivance, the free exercise of the franchise by any voter."

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said "that's the only one (state law) we can find that addresses this."

This isn't the first allegation of voter fraud in Nevada, a swing state where numerous advocacy groups are registering voters. Already the Nevada Department of Investigations is looking into other cases of potential tampering, including forms with fictitious names.

"Nevada Department of Investigations is looking into fraud on other issues, and I would hope they would look into this one," Lomax said during an appearance Wednesday on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable channel 19.

The Democrats' lawsuit relies heavily on an affidavit from Russell, who said he worked several weeks in September for Voters Outreach.

Russell said that the group owes him and his girlfriend, Ashlee Tins, at least $500 in pay for work they did registering voters, but the 26-year-old said that wasn't his motivation several days ago when he started e-mailing journalists and Democratic activists about what he saw.

"That's a separate thing," he said of the money.

He said he first heard about Voters Outreach through a newspaper ad. He and Tins had been operating a jewelry kiosk at the Boulevard mall but business had faded, he said.

"That ended," he said. "We definitely needed some income."

They were paid $8.50 an hour if they worked less than 32 hours a week, and $10 an hour if they worked more, Russell said.

But he said he had doubts about Voters Outreach from the initial training, when he said managers encouraged employees to focus on registering Republicans.

He pointed to a memo he said he received from the company that says, "we can't refuse to register someone to vote from another political party. Use your training to find likely Republicans. Don't use terms like 'register to vote' or 'voter registration.' "

Employees were instructed to approach people at stores or strip malls and ask they were planning to vote for President Bush or Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

If they said Kerry, they were thanked. If they said Bush, employees of the group were to give a pitch, Russell said.

"We were to say, 'The president needs your help, let's go ahead and update your information today,' " Russell said. "We were even instructed to not use the words 'voter registration' or 'register to vote.' We would essentially register them to vote as Republican."

His story jibes with Kristen Perrah-Lewis, an employee of America Coming Together, a Democratic organization, who went through training to become a canvasser through Voters Outreach.

Perrah-Lewis said the woman who trained her from Voters Outreach made it clear from the beginning that the company didn't want Democratic registration forms.

"She said repeatedly the Republican Party is not going to pay you if you don't bring in Republican registrations," Perrah-Lewis said.

Russell said things got ugly with his boss when he tried to submit Democratic forms. She sometimes told him he was turning in too many Democratic forms and tried to dock his pay, Russell said.

Finally, on the last Saturday of September, Russell said he got into an altercation with his boss when she threatened to pay him for two hours when he had worked six because he tried to submit Democratic registrations.

She told him to leave, and when he did, Russell said he saw another worker tear up forms and put them in the trash. He said he grabbed them out of the bin and left.

It was clear, Russell said, that his boss was angry because he submitted Democratic forms.

"She was telling me that was one of the reasons she fired us," Russell said. "We didn't follow the rules."

According to Lomax, Voters Outreach of America signed out 4,500 registration forms from his office.

Of those, he said, about 2,400 were returned, which is about average for voter registration groups. Lomax said that 319 were registered as Democrats, 1,947 as Republicans, and the rest either independent or members of smaller parties.

Lomax said that anybody can request registration forms from his office. The key requirement is a distribution plan, to ensure that the forms have a chance of being completed.

For example, he said, if a person said they were going to leave the forms on people's doorsteps, "we know that doesn't work. So we review your plan to make sure we're not wasting taxpayer money."

Lomax said he had not been contacted by any law enforcement agency yet. When asked whether he expected that to happen, he said, "Describe to me what we're talking about. One fired, disgruntled employee has made an allegation this occurred and all he has provided that I'm aware of is three discarded forms he dug out of the trash."

Russell provided four completed forms and 10 voter registration receipts to Channel 8 Eyewitness News, which first reported the story Tuesday.

While he said that claims of fraudulent registration come up with every election, "what's unique in this case is that I've never had complaints or allegations someone was actually tearing up the forms and throwing them away."

Lomax said voters should check to ensure they're on the rolls by calling 455-VOTE (8683) or on the Internet at www.accessclarkcounty.com.

County counsel Mary Miller said that a new law enacted by the 2003 Legislature allows people to vote provisionally in federal elections if they claim they registered but they aren't on the rolls.

The county election department has forms on which a person signs an oath of affirmation. The voter is given a tracking number. Those votes are kept separately and "they'll be researched after the election," Miller said.

"It's a new statute so it's hard for me to anticipate how it will be used," she said.

Doug Jones, who manages Tempforce 2000, said his company had a contract with Voters Outreach of America that lasted from mid-August to the last week of September.

He supplied the Voters Outreach with about 250 workers, he said, though he declined to say how much the company paid for him to supply the temporary workers.

"I'm supplying staff like I do to any company," he said.

Jones said other business owners referred the group to him when it came looking for space in his building. Temporary agencies have been used by both political parties to register people this year, he said.

"This was done all over the U.S. this year," Jones said.

Jones said that he doesn't think that there was a deliberate attempt to destroy Democratic voter registration forms.

"Everything I saw was above board. They trusted people also. People called in and said, 'I'm going to Vons,' then they called in at noon and said 'I was at Vons,' and they paid them for that four hours," Jones said.

"I know you need an interesting news story, but the boring part of this may be that this which is permitted maybe shouldn't be permitted. I don't see an intentional assault. I don't see a demon, I see sloppiness."

However, Jones said, "I'm in agreement about the seriousness of this. I find it disgusting if it happened the way described. I would be stunned if I went to vote and couldn't.

A message left with the man Jones described as directing the Voters Outreach of American operation was not returned Wednesday night.

Daren Gray, whose name is on one of the alleged torn up and discarded voter registration forms, said that he didn't remember when he signed the form, which is dated Sept. 25.

He said that he's lived at his current resident since about March, after having briefly moved from Las Vegas to Utah.

Gray said he was approached while at Albertson's, near Maryland and Flamingo.

"The guy came up to me and wanted to know if I had registered to vote. I told him I had but not since I came back so I should probably redo it. He told me some organization was paying him a few bucks an hour to get people to register," Gray said.

He said he did not know the man who registered him.

Gray said he received a receipt, but he did not have it immediately available.

When told by Channel 8's George Knapp about his ripped up voter registration form, "I was pretty upset about it. That's one of your basic rights here, to be able to vote. I don't know if any legal action going to be taken but I think there should be."

Sun reporters Cy Ryan and Jace Radke contributed to this story.

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