Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Democratic couple from Sparks, who alleged forms destroyed, allowed to vote

CARSON CITY -- A Sparks couple who suspect their voter registration forms were destroyed because they are Democrats were permitted to vote Tuesday.

District Judge Brent Adams ruled Eric and Traci Amberson could vote because they had evidence they had registered to vote though the Washoe County registrar of voters did not receive their registration forms.

"Democracy succeeded," Eric Amberson said. "Obviously, there is evidence the GOP was paying off people. But we were able to overturn everything."

The Ambersons kept the receipts for the registration forms they filled out Oct. 2 with a voter registration representative outside a Wal-Mart. When they did not get sample ballots by mail, they contacted the Washoe County registrar's office.

The receipts showed their forms were among a batch given to Voter Outreach of America, a firm operated by Sproul & Associates of Chandler, Ariz. Sproul was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters.

The company is under investigation in Nevada and Oregon on allegations that workers destroyed voter registration forms from Democrats.

Former Supreme Court Justice Charles Springer, who represented the Ambersons, praised Adams for his decision, which came a day after the state Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The high court ruled the proceeding should have been conducted first in District Court.

"When you go to a little old lady with a flag on her table that says 'Register to vote,' like the Ambersons did, people walk away thinking they are registered," Springer said.

In Las Vegas last month, District Judge Valerie Adair denied the Democrat Party's request to reopen registration to voters whose registrations might have been destroyed by Voter Outreach of America.

A former worker of the firm has said that he was paid to register Republicans and that his supervisor tore up registration forms of Democrats.