(Newser)
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Florida, no stranger to voting trouble, is home to a new controversy: The state's Republican Party last night fired Strategic Allied Consulting, a company it hired to register voters, after it turned in 106 suspicious and allegedly fraudulent voter registration applications. The firm appears to belong to Nathan Sproul, though his ownership is hidden. Sproul is notorious for voter registration scandals and has been hired by a number of Republican presidential campaigns; he is currently a consultant to Mitt Romney's campaign, the Brad Blog reports. The Palm Beach Post reports that the company was paid more than $1.3 million by the Republican Party of Florida.
Strategic Allied Consulting has reportedly been hired in a number of other states to run similar voter registration campaigns, and the Brad Blog says the Florida scandal is just one small part of "a massive GOP voter registration scheme." Meanwhile GOP-backed voter ID laws intended to block such chicanery continue to come under fire. NPR today tells the stories of two Pennsylvania seniors, one of whom has multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair, and the difficulty they've had acquiring IDs under the state's new law. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that nine witnesses will testify today about problems they experienced getting IDs, including some who still haven't been able to get even a voting-only ID card. Today is likely the last day of hearings, and the judge has until next week to make a decision on the law.
