Voter Registrations Faked In Gop Drive

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Voter registrations faked in GOP drive
About 150 forms questioned in Metro, Williamson County
Friday, 10/06/06 | tennessean.com

At least five apparently bogus voter registration forms were submitted to the Metro Nashville election commission by a worker with ties to the Republican National Committee, and up to 150 other registrations have been called into question, The Tennessean has learned.

Election officials in Williamson County said they were probing three to five potentially fraudulent forms that might or might not be related to the Metro cases.

The five Metro forms contain the names, addresses and phone numbers of bona fide citizens, but the birth dates, Social Security numbers, signatures and some other details are wrong. Four of the citizens told The Tennessean that they did not submit the forms.

The five contain a signature with a surname of Morrison and a first name that is illegible but appears to begin with a "D." Metro staff said the registration forms bearing that signature were submitted in the name of Tennessee Victory 2006, a booster group advocating for GOP candidates in the state. A sixth form also apparently contains bogus information but does not bear a Morrison signature.

"I think it's pretty scary," said Jon Glassmeyer of east Nashville.

He discovered his name had been used when he received a new voter registration card in the mail though he's been registered for 20 years. He first noticed that the birth date was wrong and then that the Social Security number was off, too.

He's never heard of anyone named Morrison.

Mark Tripp, also of east Nashville, said he didn't know about the potential fraud until told about it last night by The Tennessean. The newspaper had obtained copies of his registration forms — both his older, correct one and the newer one.

"It's disconcerting," Tripp said. "You're all the time hearing about people getting their identity stolen. I work two jobs to support my family, and then to have somebody do that. What are they trying to do?"

Tripp said he did not know anyone with the name Morrison and said no one had permission to sign any registration documents on his behalf.

Some of the forms bearing the Morrison signature also list an address of an Intown Suites in Antioch.

Tennessee Victory 2006 is a joint effort between the state Republican Party and the Republican National Committee.

State Republican Party Executive Director Chris Devaney said that the RNC was running the show at Tennessee Victory in August, when the registrations were apparently collected.

"We try to recruit people who are upstanding citizens and follow the letter of the law and hope they never engage in any kind of activity like that," Devaney said.

Contacted by telephone Thursday evening, RNC spokesman Danny Diaz declined to answer questions about whether RNC officials worked in Tennessee at all.

The potentially fraudulent forms could be the handiwork of a political worker who was paid by the number of new voters registered, said Jon Crisp, chairman of the Nashville-Davidson County Republican Party.

"I think this is more financial fraud, not election fraud," Crisp said.

He said he heard about the 100 to 150 questionable forms earlier this week and did not believe a local GOP volunteer was behind it. Instead, he said, political groups contract with companies that pay people to register voters.

"I think this is someone trying to pump up their numbers," Crisp said. "I don't care if my side did it or the other side did it, it needs to be prosecuted."

Diaz and Devaney de-clined to say how their organizations hire and compensate people who sign up voters. Neither could say whether a D. Morrison was affiliated with their organizations.

State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said the strategy behind the fraud was unclear, but that the system's safeguards appeared to have caught it.

"At first blush it does not appear that the problem lies with somebody doing something trying to falsify a vote," Thompson said. "It's more an issue of registration problems. The question is, why would they do that?"

Fraudulently registering to vote is illegal in Tennessee and can bring up to six years in prison and permanent loss of voting rights. The signatures on the Metro forms were made directly under a printed warning that lying on the form is a felony.

The flowing signature of Larry Vance of Bellevue didn't look anything like the much smaller script he used to sign his name on his original voter registration card in 1968. Metro noted discrepancies on the two forms and sent him a letter, his wife, Carol Vance, said.

Brian Belt of Hermitage, a Tennessean copy editor, caught the error himself when a new card arrived in the mail for him bearing a wrong birth date.

The phony forms were submitted to the commission Sept. 6, and residents reported the fraud as early as two weeks ago.

Ray Barrett, Davidson County's elections administrator, said his office had been looking into the matter and planned to tell the state election commission next week. He said findings would move to the district attorney's office for possible criminal prosecution.

After inquiries by The Tennessean, Barrett's office informed both agencies Thursday.

In Williamson County, Elections Administrator Ann Beard said the five or fewer cases were turned over to Thompson's office. Thompson said his staff received the reports within the past two weeks and had asked the district attorney general there to review the cases.

In most cases, Beard's staff caught the discrepancies before new registration cards were mailed out. However, someone illegally tried to register a boy under the age of 18, Beard said. The teen's mother called to say a voter registration card had arrived for her son.

"It appears to me the applications were brought in by an individual maybe from a group and who had maybe gotten the information off some other form of ID," Beard said.