Cash for Voter Registration Raises Fraud Question

by Pablo Ros  |  October 10, 2012

MIAMI – Talk these days of the negative effect money can have on the political process often focuses on the newly minted Super PACs and similar groups, and the unprecedented amounts of cash being raised by the candidates.

But at least in Florida, the corrupting influence of the almighty dollar may have led some right-wing voter registration efforts to cross the line into illegality.

Strategic Allied Consulting, a company hired by the Florida Republican Party to register voters, was recently fired after allegations surfaced that the forms being turned in to elections officials appeared to be fraudulent. Although the extent of the possible fraud is still under investigation, complaints have arisen in 10 counties, and include allegations that the forms contained false addresses or were filed under the names of dead people.

There were also reports that party affiliations on the forms appeared to have been changed, from Democratic to Republican. This kind of fraud is even more worrisome to some elections experts.

The source of the problem may have to do with how employees of the company were being paid to register voters. Though a lawyer for Strategic Allied has said they were paid by the hour, with no quota attached, an election supervisor for Okaloosa County, Fla., said he received reports that Strategic’s employees were paid based on the number of forms they filled out.

In other words, the more forms you turned in, the more money you earned. If this sounds like a bad idea, it’s presumably why there is already a law in Florida that makes it illegal to pay someone per registration form.

AFSCME supports this law, and encourages elections officials in the state to continue to enforce it.