Campaign 2004: Voter registration workers cry foul
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western
Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of
wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls
who might support the Democratic presidential nominee.
Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm based in Chandler, Ariz., hired
to conduct the drive by the Republican National Committee, employed
several hundred canvassers throughout the state to register new voters.
Some workers yesterday said they were told to avoid registering
Democrats or anyone who indicated support for Democratic nominee John
F. Kerry.
"We were told that if they wanted to register Democrat, there was no
way we were to register them to vote," said Michele Tharp, of
Meadville, who said she was sent out to canvass door-to-door and
outside businesses in Meadville, Crawford County. "We were only to
register Republicans."
Tharp said volunteers were sent door-to-door to seek registrants but
were instructed to first ask prospective new voters which candidate
they planned to support.
"If they said Kerry, we were just supposed to say thank you and walk
away," Tharp said.
Brenda Snyder, a volunteer with the Republican Victory Center in Erie
said workers "absolutely never" were told not to register Democrats.
She said some workers were not paid "because of discrepancies in their
paychecks" and said the party was attempting to correct the problem.
Tharp, for instance, said she was paid only $14 for 15 hours of work
after being hired at a rate of $11 per hour.
Heather Layman, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee,
confirmed Sproul's role in the effort and said that complaints by 45 to
50 workers who had not been paid had been straightened out. Layman
denied that the canvassers avoided registering Democrats and suggested
that Democrats were orchestrating the charges.
"I do smell politics here if that's what they're saying," Layman said.
Much of the controversy yesterday centered on the registration drive in
Crawford County, where canvassers claimed to be owed thousands of
dollars after hunting out Bush supporters.
"If they were a Kerry voter, we were just supposed to walk away," said
Michael Twilla, of Meadville, who said he has been paid for only eight
of 72 hours he worked.
Twilla provided the Post-Gazette with a copy of the script he said he
had been given.
It instructs the canvassers to hand unregistered Bush supporters a
clipboard with a registration form, and to advise them the canvassers
will personally deliver the forms to the local courthouse.
A lower portion of the form also advises the canvassers to ask
undecided voters two questions: "Do you consider yourself pro-choice or
pro life?" and "Are you worried about the Democrats raising taxes?" If
voters say they are pro-life, the form says, "Ask if they are
registered to vote. If they are pro-choice, say thank you and walk
away."
The form also tells canvassers, "If anyone asks who you are working
for, it's 'Project America Vote.' "
America Votes, whose name is similar, is a self-described nonpartisan
voter registration organization sponsored by generally liberal-leaning
groups.
Several canvassers said they had been instructed to skip the lower
portion of the form and others said they were told to say they were
working for a local employment agency.
Twilla said the canvassers were told to say they worked for Career
Concepts, a local employment agency. Career Concepts was contracted by
a Florida firm, Apple One, to assist them in locating temporary
employees. A spokeswomen for Career Concepts last night said her firm
did not employ the canvassers.
Sproul's role in voter registration drives this month triggered
official investigations in several other states, with canvassers
alleging they had been told to discard Democratic registration forms,
leaving voters who thought they had registered off the rolls.
The firm has a contract with the Republican National Committee to
register new voters and has operated using the name Voters Outreach of
America. Sproul's chairman, Nathan Sproul, is a former executive
director of the Arizona Republican Party.
The firm attracted attention in Pittsburgh last month when Sproul
employees called a Carnegie Library official to request space outside
the buildings to register voters.
Holly McCullough, special assistant to the library director, said a
woman from the firm said they were working for America Votes, the
nonpartisan but liberal leaning organization.
McCullough said she agreed to allow the group to set up at the
libraries.
"I said there has to be no issue advocacy. It has to do nonpartisan
voter registration and they said that was right," McCullough said.
Instead, several days later, McCullough received a call from Ryan
Hughes, director of the Woods Run library branch, saying patrons had
complained about the behavior of the canvassers.
Hughes said a patron came in the library Sept. 7 "and said 'There's
this person out there asking me who I was voting for.' "But McCullough
said she also became concerned because she discovered that Sproul was
not working for America Votes, and that the registration drive was
being organized by the Republican Party.
(Dennis Roddy can be reached at 412-263-1965 or at
droddy@post-gazette.com)
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