Washington, DC (Oct. 12, 2012)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a statement in response to a letter from an attorney for Nathan Sproul stating that he will not cooperate with a congressional investigation into voter fraud allegations against his company, Strategic Allied Consulting. 

Cummings stated:

“Voting is a fundamental right that every eligible American is entitled to—not a privilege reserved for a select few—and any efforts to deny that right are criminal and offensive.  Mr. Sproul’s decision to withhold documents and refuse to appear before Congress is obstructing our investigation into allegations of voter fraud by his companies.  This obstruction is particularly disturbing in light of Sproul’s own statements that he worked with the RNC to conceal his shady record.  This is not a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, this is an orchestrated campaign to hide the truth.”

The letter from Sproul’s attorney came amid new press reports that he established a different company, Issue Advocacy Partners, that is currently operating in ten battleground states. In addition, newly uncovered election records also show that Karl Rove’s Super PAC, the Romney campaign, and other Republicans entities have paid millions of dollars to Sproul’s companies, including Strategic Allied Consulting, Sproul and Associates, Lincoln Strategies, and Grassroots Outreach LLC.

Strategic Allied Consulting is under criminal investigation in Florida for allegations of voter registration fraud in ten counties.  A Florida elections official described how these allegations, which include changing the addresses of Democratic voters, could effectively disenfranchise them.  According to Susan Bucher, County Elections Supervisor in Palm Beach, Florida:

If they’re changing your address from your real address, and you did not submit that, somebody was submitting it on your behalf in a false manner, then on Election Day you will not appear on the voter rolls and you’re going to have to vote a provisional ballot, and the law says that if you don’t go to the correct polling location on Election Day and you vote a provisional ballot, we can’t open the envelope and count your ballot.

After these allegations surfaced, the RNC fired Sproul’s company, and RNC communications director Sean Spicer stated “we have zero tolerance for this.” 

In contrast, Sproul claims that the RNC was aware of allegations against him in the past and told him to change the name of his company to conceal those connections.  According to the Los Angeles Times, Sproul “said he created Strategic Allied Consulting at the request of the Republican National Committee because of the bad publicity stemming from past allegations.”  As Sproul stated himself:  “In order to be able to do the job that the state parties were hiring us to do, the [RNC] asked us to do it with a different company’s name.”

News reports also indicate that these allegations may have been known in August, nearly a month before the RNC severed ties with Sproul’s company.

In addition to Florida, Strategic Allied Consulting was hired by the RNC to register GOP voters in multiple other states, including Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado and Virginia.