Time runs low for Secretary of State to speak up

Strategic Allied Consulting has busted out of Florida, and the Republican National Committee has distanced itself from the controversial voter registration outfit.

In Nevada, where Strategic has a checkered history, its status remains unclear. But it has been linked to at least one complaint here. As of late last week, vote canvassers working on behalf of Strategic were still on the street.

A complaint of suspected voter registration fraud has been filed with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.

The Secretary of State’s office has been contacted by several media outlets seeking comment on Strategic’s status.

Community activist Gina Greisen witnessed the canvasser’s act outside the Henderson JobConnect office on Water Street and filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s office. Although Greisen sometimes works on behalf of Democratic candidates, she also has given authorities the name and contact phone number of the citizen who experienced the ethically shoddy sales pitch. In other words, there’s a corroborating witness and physical evidence in the form of a torn up registration form.

“Voter registration fraud is not okay for anyone,” Greisen says. “I don’t care what party you’re in. To me, this is a sacred right. The right to vote is sacred, and you don’t mess with it, no matter what party you’re in. I would turn in a Democrat just as fast as a Republican.”

The trouble with trying to write off the incident is that it wasn’t isolated. Several days after Greisen contacted the authorities, I observed the same guy trying the same deceptive rhetoric on unsuspecting passersby outside the JobConnect office.

When I approached him on the sidewalk, he immediately began to pitch me on “updating” my voter registration or risk not being able to vote in the upcoming election. He also indicated that voters couldn’t cast their ballots without their official “greed cards” from the election department. (They can, of course.)

If it were just any voter registration outfit, you might be able to write it off as ignorance in action. But this is Strategic, which has a documented history of trouble.