[NYCFarmboy]

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs...%20%2041018011


Article published Monday, October 18, 2004

Defiance County man arrested in alleged voter registration-crack cocaine scheme




A Defiance County man has been arrested for allegedly filing more than 100 false voter registration forms in exchange for crack cocaine from a Toledo woman working on behalf of the NAACP’s voter registration drive.

Chad Staton, 22, of Stratton Ave., faces a fifth-degree felony charge of false registration after sheriff’s deputies said he filled out the registration forms by himself — using either fictitious names or addresses — and gave them to Georgianne Pitts, 41.

Toledo police searched Ms. Pitts’ home and discovered drug paraphernalia along with more voter registration forms. Police said that Ms. Pitts admitted to paying Mr. Staton in crack cocaine, in lieu of cash.

Ms. Pitts, working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, submitted the forms to the voter fund, which in turn submitted them to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Because the addresses on the forms were for the Defiance area, the Cuyahoga County elections board sent the registration forms to Defiance County’s elections board, with a note to check the signatures for fraud, said Laura Howell, the deputy director of the Defiance County elections board.

Ms. Pitts told police she had been recruited to obtain voter registration forms by Thaddeus J. Jackson II, of Cleveland, who is coordinating the Toledo area’s voter registration drive for the NAACP voter drive.

When contacted by The Blade this afternoon, Mr. Jackson said that Ms. Pitts was a “volunteer,” but said he had no knowledge of any fraudulent voter registration forms. He declined to comment further.

Citing the case, Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said in a statement this afternoon that there is “an effort to steal Ohio’s election” that is “being driven exclusively by interest groups working to register Democratic voters.”

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.

[OldManMac]

It was much more sensational to use your own headline than the one in the article, wasn't it?

"Defiance County man arrested in alleged voter registration-crack cocaine scheme

That way you could make it seem like a whole bunch of people would involved, instead of a couple of scum balls."

Nice try, though.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by KarlG:
It was much more sensational to use your own headline than the one in the article, wasn't it?

"Defiance County man arrested in alleged voter registration-crack cocaine scheme

That way you could make it seem like a whole bunch of people would involved, instead of a couple of scum balls."

Nice try, though.

Oh yes..sorry..we all know that the NAACP National Voter Fund is a REPUBLICAN front group. NOT.



Me thinks this leads to a new definition of "HIGH Voter Turnout".

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by KarlG:
It was much more sensational to use your own headline than the one in the article, wasn't it?

"Defiance County man arrested in alleged voter registration-crack cocaine scheme

That way you could make it seem like a whole bunch of people would involved, instead of a couple of scum balls."

Nice try, though.

Niceeeee misleading headline

[Spliffdaddy]

So it would be OK if I only ask white folks to register to vote?

The NAACP is a bunch of racist losers and it really doesn't surprise me that crack cocaine was involved.

Isn't that how Marion Barry got the support of Washington DC? Crack cocaine?

next topic.

[d4nth3m4n]

oh wow. feel the love.

[warmspit]

unclear to me how this extends beyond these two individuals, further unclear how it involves the Democratic party.

Meanwhile, Sproul and Associates, directly funded by the RNC, is destroying democratic registrations by the thousands across 9 states (that we know of).

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by warmspit:
unclear to me how this extends beyond these two individuals, further unclear how it involves the Democratic party.

Meanwhile, Sproul and Associates, directly funded by the RNC, is destroying democratic registrations by the thousands across 9 states (that we know of).

The registrations gathered in exchange for crack cocaine were actually registered by the NCAAP Voter Action group.

It came out today that the names submitted by the group included Mary Poppins & Dick Tracey and about 100 other fictious & dead individuals.

It was ONLY after the names were processed that the local election board discovered what was going on.

But then..who am I to deny Mary Poppins the right to vote.

I see where the Democrats are today giving out pill boxes in Florida... I guess to hold the crack cocaine in?

[OldManMac]

So why don't you come right out and say it, instead of insinuating it; according to you, the NAACP is handing out crack cocaine. The only problem with that is that you have no proof. The woman involved admits giving out crack to the guy who allegedly filled out voter forms with false names and addresses, so, because it's convenient to you and your political viewpoints, you extrapolate that out to suggest that the entire NAACP is involved, and some others here, who are in the same boat as you, with no principles, handily latch on to the story because it's what they want to believe, whether it's true or not. Until proven otherwise, there are two people involved in this, whether you want to believe it or not.

[GORDYmac]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
[...]Me thinks this leads to a new definition of "HIGH Voter Turnout".

Good one!

[warmspit]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
The registrations gathered in exchange for crack cocaine were actually registered by the NCAAP Voter Action group.

It came out today that the names submitted by the group included Mary Poppins & Dick Tracey and about 100 other fictious & dead individuals.

It was ONLY after the names were processed that the local election board discovered what was going on.

But then..who am I to deny Mary Poppins the right to vote.

I see where the Democrats are today giving out pill boxes in Florida... I guess to hold the crack cocaine in?

I note you conveniently sidestep Sproule and Associates.

[warmspit]

Originally posted by warmspit:
I note you conveniently sidestep Sproule and Associates.

and, speaking of them: they ADMIT to some accusations against them, and are proud of it:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../gop_operative

PHOENIX - GOP operative Nathan Sproul makes no apologies for sending his canvassers out to register Republicans, not Democrats, in battleground states. And if powerful Democrats like Ted Kennedy are demanding the Justice Department (news - web sites) investigate him, well, he considers that a badge of honor.

"I take great pride in the fact that the Democrats are having hysterical fits about how well we did our job," Sproul said.

Sproul and his Chandler, Ariz.-based political consulting firm, Sproul & Associates, have come under fire in recent weeks, accused of deceiving would-be voters and destroying Democratic voter registration cards.

Some of his former canvassers have come forward in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Oregon, alleging they were told to register only Republicans and to "walk away" from people who said they intended to vote for John Kerry (news - web sites). Some said that completed Democratic registration forms had been thrown out or ripped up.

Sproul — a former Christian Coalition activist and one-time executive director of the Arizona GOP with a reputation among Republicans as someone who gets things done — has denied any wrongdoing.

His political opponents say the 32-year-old Sproul has a history of employing underhanded tactics.

"It comes as no surprise that Nathan Sproul is involved in registering voters in some sketchy way," said Arizona Democratic Party spokeswoman Sarah Rosen. "It seems that whatever he's been doing is finally catching up with him. Yet the RNC and Republicans seem to keep rewarding him with new contracts."

Sproul & Associates received nearly $526,000 from the Republican National Committee (news - web sites) since July for voter registration efforts and nearly $490,000 from the RNC for political consulting, according to the Political Money Line campaign finance tracking service. Political Money Line also showed that the Arizona Republican Party has paid Sproul $70,000 for consulting and voter registration drives here.

"Nathan Sproul is a victim of slanderous statements by the Democrats who will say anything to win," said Bill Christiansen, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party.

While Sproul denies that any workers were instructed to destroy Democratic registrations, he does not dispute that he tried to register more Republicans than Democrats. After all, that is why he was hired by the GOP, he said, and it is fair.

"For Democrats to feign anger over it demonstrates their complete lack of integrity," Sproul said. "They do the exact same thing every day of the week."

He said his canvassers did not go out looking for Democrats, but accepted voter registrations from them if they offered them.

While it is illegal to tamper with voter registration forms — in some states it is a felony — it is not against the law for groups to decline to register certain voters. However, it is frowned upon by some.

"It's unethical to not register anyone who comes to you to register," said Karen Osborne, a Democrat who is elections director for Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous county.

Whether the Justice Department is investigating Sproul is unclear. The department did not immediately return a call for comment, but Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller said the FBI (news - web sites) has taken the lead on an investigation into claims of voter fraud in his state by a company headed by Sproul.

Sproul is fighting back. After former canvasser Eric Russell of Las Vegas claimed that he saw a Sproul supervisor tear up eight to 10 registration forms completed by Democrats, Sproul hit Russell with a slander suit.

"As best as I can tell, the incident he alleges didn't happen," Sproul said. "It caused great discomfort to me, my family and my business."

Russell said he managed to grab some of the shredded documents as evidence.

Sproul grew up in Tempe and considered the ministry while studying at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Minnesota. After he graduated in 1994, he went to Washington to work as an intern for then-Rep. Jon Kyl of Arizona. Later he became executive director of the state's Christian Coalition branch, then executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. He left in 2002 to start his own firm, which coordinates voter registration drives and gathers petition signatures

During Sproul's recent work on an effort to dismantle Arizona's "Clean Elections" system for publicly funding candidates, Democrats secretly videotaped one of his petition gatherers lying about the ballot measure — and portraying it as something that would promote Clean Elections — to get a voter's signature. (The measure never made it to the ballot because of problems with the wording.)

When he was field director with the nonprofit Christian Coalition, he was accused by some of being overtly political.

His firm has grown quickly, in large part because of Sproul's GOP contacts.

"He's very professional, very mission-oriented," said Republican consultant Paul Senseman. "He's somebody that gets things done."

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs...%20%2041018011


Article published Monday, October 18, 2004

Defiance County man arrested in alleged voter registration-crack cocaine scheme




A Defiance County man has been arrested for allegedly filing more than 100 false voter registration forms in exchange for crack cocaine from a Toledo woman working on behalf of the NAACP’s voter registration drive.

Chad Staton, 22, of Stratton Ave., faces a fifth-degree felony charge of false registration after sheriff’s deputies said he filled out the registration forms by himself — using either fictitious names or addresses — and gave them to Georgianne Pitts, 41.

Toledo police searched Ms. Pitts’ home and discovered drug paraphernalia along with more voter registration forms. Police said that Ms. Pitts admitted to paying Mr. Staton in crack cocaine, in lieu of cash.

Ms. Pitts, working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, submitted the forms to the voter fund, which in turn submitted them to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Because the addresses on the forms were for the Defiance area, the Cuyahoga County elections board sent the registration forms to Defiance County’s elections board, with a note to check the signatures for fraud, said Laura Howell, the deputy director of the Defiance County elections board.

Ms. Pitts told police she had been recruited to obtain voter registration forms by Thaddeus J. Jackson II, of Cleveland, who is coordinating the Toledo area’s voter registration drive for the NAACP voter drive.

When contacted by The Blade this afternoon, Mr. Jackson said that Ms. Pitts was a “volunteer,” but said he had no knowledge of any fraudulent voter registration forms. He declined to comment further.

Citing the case, Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said in a statement this afternoon that there is “an effort to steal Ohio’s election” that is “being driven exclusively by interest groups working to register Democratic voters.”

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.

[OldManMac]

So you want to believe that there's more involved here than the two primary parties; that doesn't make it so. Can't wait for the full facts to be proven? Or is it really that you just can't resist another attempt to smear somebody, and hoping that you'll get more action on the thread by bumping it, after 12 days of little action on the thread.

[PacHead]

In other good news, the racist NAACP is being investigated by the IRS, and hopefully they'll lose their tax-exempt status.

[nredman]

C is for Crack!

[warmspit]

Originally posted by KarlG:
So you want to believe that there's more involved here than the two primary parties; that doesn't make it so. Can't wait for the full facts to be proven? Or is it really that you just can't resist another attempt to smear somebody, and hoping that you'll get more action on the thread by bumping it, after 12 days of little action on the thread.

who are you talking to?

[OldManMac]

NYC Farmboy. He's posted the same article twice in one thread, 12 days apart, because he really wants so hard to believe that the entire DNC is behind this crack incident.

[warmspit]

Originally posted by KarlG:
NYC Farmboy. He's posted the same article twice in one thread, 12 days apart, because he really wants so hard to believe that the entire DNC is behind this crack incident.

ahh. thanks, that made more sense.

[CreepingDeth]

Originally posted by nredman:


C is for Crack!

Tis good to see Lerkfish back.

[IceBreaker]

Originally posted by KarlG:
NYC Farmboy. He's posted the same article twice in one thread, 12 days apart, because he really wants so hard to believe that the entire DNC is behind this crack incident.

oh come on... if you ask me this is the funniest story to come out of this election....

gee wiz..where is your sense of humor!