Three Democratic congressmen seek federal investigation of Nathan Sproul's voter operations

Three Democratic members of the Virginia congressional delegation have sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a multi-state investigation of firms run by Republican operative Nathan Sproul. He is the proprietor of Strategic Allied Consulting, the firm recently fired by the Republican National Committee earlier this month over accusations of voter-registration fraud in Florida. He also runs a SAC subsidiary, Pinpoint, in Virginia, which has not lost its contract with the Republicans.

The three congressmen, Rep. Jim Moran, Bobby Scott and Gerry Connolly, wrote that the "number of allegations in a multitude of locations would seem to suggest something more than the isolated acts of 'a few bad apples.'" Their letter requests that the Justice Department look into whether:

a pattern of voting registration irregularities related to Strategic Allied Consulting are connected and constitute a broader conspiracy of voter registration fraud.  

Our inquiry is prompted by the recent media reports that an employee of Pinpoint, a subsidiary of Strategic Allied Consulting, was charged in Rockingham County, Virginia with 13 counts of destruction of voter registration applications, disclosure of voter registration information, and obstruction of justice.

The RNC and state Republican parties have paid Sproul's firms operating under different names more than $21 million in the past nine years. The current allegations of voter registration fraud are not the first leveled at those firms. No previous investigations of or allegations against Sproul's operations have led to charges being filed.

Strategic Allied Consulting was fired by the RNC and five state Republican parties after more than 100 apparently fraudulent voter-registration applications connected to the firm turned up in 10 Florida counties. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is looking into what has risen to more than 200 allegations of SAC fraud. Subsequent to the firing, one of the laid-off employees at Strategic, Colin Small, went to work for Pinpoint. He has been charged with 13 counts for tossing eight voter-registration forms into a dumpster. All but one of the eight people on those forms were either already registered or have since processed by election officials. One of them was disqualified from voting in the state because of a felony conviction.

At first the Virginia State Elections Board had called the Small case isolated and sought no further investigation beyond what the local sheriff's office undertook. But after criticism from the state Democratic Party, the board changed its tune Wednesday and asked Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli II to look into the Small case. He has agreed:

'This office will perform a thorough investigation of these very serious allegations,' the attorney general's office said in a statement. 'Violations of election laws will not be tolerated in the commonwealth. Citizens must feel confident that one of our most precious rights'the right to vote'is protected and that the electoral process is a secure and democratic one. We will do everything we can to ensure that.'

No toleration sounds good. But "zero tolerance" was what a party spokesman said was Republican Party policy when the RNC fired Strategic Allied Consulting without firing its Pinpoint subsidiary.

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The text of the congressmen's letter to Attorney General Holder is below the fold.