GOP says Nevada voter fraud charges are trumped up

Kirsten Searer

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

Top Republican strategists told reporters Wednesday in a national conference call that Democrats have trumped up charges of voter fraud in Nevada.

Charges that thousands of Democratic voters were disenfranchised have proved "baseless," said Jim Dyke, communications director for the Republican National Committee.

Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe told reporters last week that thousands of Democratic voters could lose their right to vote because of Voters Outreach of America, a group funded by the Republican National Committee.

A former Voters Outreach employee accused the group of tearing up Democratic registration forms.

"We have a zero tolerance policy," Dyke said. "We expressed that to any firm that helped us."

One of the coordinators of the group, Arizona-based consultant Nathan Sproul, has filed a slander suit in Arizona against the employee who made the charge in Nevada.

On Friday, District Judge Valerie Adair ruled against re-opening voter registration to people who said they were victims of Voters Outreach.

The Republicans said they're monitoring charges of voter fraud in several other battleground states, including Ohio, Florida and New Mexico. They are also looking at the use of provisional ballots, which are given to voters at the polls when they are not registered, including at Nevada polls.

It remains unclear if those ballots will be counted. Several states are deciding how to verify that people who cast provisional ballots did try to register.

The Republicans, however, said that all of the legal activity involving voter fraud doesn't mean that results will be held up after the Nov. 2 election.

"What we're trying to do now is ensure that bipartisan laws which apply on a neutral basis to Democrats, Republicans and everybody else ensure that every Republican is able to vote and participate," said Ken Mehlman, the Bush-Cheney campaign manager.

McAuliffe is scheduled to appear this morning in Las Vegas.