Voters moving targets for canvassers

The people who made their way through the doors of the Henderson JobConnect office on Water Street on Thursday afternoon probably had plenty on their minds.

In the current troubled economy, the unemployed face stresses that would drive anyone to distraction.

On Thursday, they also faced questions from the man who stood just outside the job center. He carried a clipboard full of voter registration forms.

"Excuse me, sir," he said. "Have you moved in the past four years?"

Yes, I said.

"This is not to direct you to vote," he said. "It's not. It's to get your address for the correct polling place. You'll get a card in the mail."

It says it's a voter registration form.

"You'll get a new card."

But I'm already registered to vote.

"In the new address? OK. You got the green card?"

I don't know if I do or not.

"That's what you need," he said. "You're not doing anything you didn't do before, but you'll get the card from one to three weeks before the election."

But I've voted in the last couple of elections from that address.

"You did? You're good to go."

But a minute later, he was back.

"Pretty soon we're going to have voter I.D., you watch," he said. "You're going to have it. Pretty soon you're going to have voter I.D."

In the Northeast, he assured me, New York has voter identification and there's no fraud.

Do they have fraud here?

"Oh, my god," he said. "You hit the hot button. That's why they have the card here. You go to the polling place, show them the card. ... Now if you don't have the card, it's no big deal to fill this out so you get the card."

I just used my driver's license. That was good.

"Now you need a voter I.D. card," he said.

I declined one more time and strolled down Water Street trying to count all the inaccuracies I'd heard in fewer than three minutes. The fact he was willing to hustle the beleaguered unemployed to further his sponsor's cause was disgusting, but not surprising.

In a complaint filed with the secretary of state's office, a numbered voter registration form the unemployment office hustler issued was linked to Arizona political consultant Nathan Sproul's Strategic Allied Consulting outfit, which the Republican National Committee finds itself scrambling to distance itself from after voter fraud complaints in Florida, Colorado and elsewhere. The Henderson street canvasser was also spotted destroying a voter registration form - and that fits a troubling pattern of behavior.

The Los Angeles Times on Friday reported the RNC was cutting its ties to Sproul's company, which has received more than $3.1 million to register and get out the vote. Florida authorities have opened an investigation into the destruction of voter forms registered to Democrats by the company.

Attempts to learn whether the Nevada Republican Party and the RNC have ended their contact with Sproul's company were unsuccessful. The cash-strapped state party passed $166,700 from the RNC to fund Strategic's Nevada voter registration drive, an informed source confirmed Friday.

When I repeated the wayward canvasser's patter to Assistant Director of Elections Donna Cardinelli, she sighed. In Nevada, she said, authorities do their best to ensure the rights of every eligible voter are protected.

"They're not understanding the way Nevada laws work," Cardinelli said, adding that lacking a voter registration card and updated address aren't legal deterrents. "There are so many of these people out there registering voters, and so many clearly don't understand."

Of course, many do understand that they can suppress some voters and confuse others with misleading rhetoric. Some canvassers receive bonuses for registering voters for one party, and that gives them extra motivation to hustle the unsophisticated. Others aren't shy about destroying registration forms of members of the opposing party.

Despite its wild political reputation, Nevada has few documented incidents of voter fraud. Even the notorious antics in 2008 of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) didn't result in a single documented fraudulent vote.

Fortunately, most of the troops working to register voters in time for the upcoming election are well meaning, or at least encouraged to follow the rules. Most don't practice outright misdirection to get you to sign forms.

Whether the rest of Strategic's ground troops knowingly imparted false information to Nevada voters in recent weeks is uncertain. But it fits the company's reputation.

And you thought all the dirty politics was playing out on television this election season.

Some of the campaign sleaze is on the street, and closer than you think.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Smith.