LAS VEGAS – The FBI has been notified that hundreds of voter-registration forms have been intentionally discarded or destroyed by a private company hired by the Republican Party to sign people up to vote.
According to KLAS-TV, the local CBS affiliate, employees who worked for Voters Outreach of America allege scores of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
The company reportedly employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day.
But according to some former employees, Voters Outreach of America sought only Republican registrations. The station reports the company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee.
Two ex-workers for Voters Outreach say they personally witnessed company supervisors tear up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
“We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us,” said Eric Russell, a former employee interviewed by KLAS. “I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assistant to get those from me.”
Russell was able to retrieve some shredded paperwork including signed voter-registration forms, all of which were from Democrats.
The television station pieced the forms back together, and presented them to the Clark County Election Department confirming they had not been filed with the county as required.
No one from the company was available for comment, as the local office was rented out to another tenant, with the landlord telling the station non-payment of rent was the reason. Another source said the company was now registering voters in Oregon.
Similar complaints have been received in Reno, Nev., where officials have asked the FBI to investigate.
The discovery could pose a problem for those going to the polls on Nov. 2, thinking they’re already registered to vote, when officials have no record of that. In fact, the deadline to register to vote in Nevada was last night.
Clark County residents can check online to see if they are indeed registered to vote.
