GOP distances itself from vote-fraud suspect

The man at the center of a Florida voter-fraud investigation is a longtime GOP operative with a pugnacious streak and controversial history among Republicans and Democrats for his aggressive tactics in registering voters.

Nathan Sproul is a businessman who rose rapidly in Arizona politics, heading the local Christian Coalition and state Republican Party in his mid20s. A series of voter-fraud allegations against him in 2004 did not slow his ascent: Mr. Sproul and firms tied to him have been paid $21.2 million by the Republican Party, its candidates and affiliated interest groups over the past nine years.

But the man who once accused Democratic critics of having “hysterical fits” now finds himself isolated politically. Nine Florida counties reported to the state that hundreds of voterregistration forms submitted by Mr. Sproul’s firm contained irregularities, such as suspicious signatures and missing information.

State law enforcement authorities are investigating the allegations. A Sproul spokesman denied any improprieties, saying the firm “has never tolerated even minimal violations of election law when registering voters.”

Late last week, the party Mr. Sproul has worked so hard to build severed ties with him. Florida GOP officials, who had paid Mr. Sproul’s Strategic Allied Consulting $1.3 million this election cycle to help register and turn out voters, filed an election complaint against his firm with state officials.

Mr. Sproul and firms tied to him also were paid $1.6 million from state parties in North Carolina, Virginia and Colorado, and Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney’s campaign paid him $72,000 for “field consulting” in this election.

“We take the integrity of elections extremely seriously,” Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer said. “We have zero tolerance for even the mere allegation of impropriety.”

Voter registration is an especially sensitive issue this year, as a series of restrictive voter-access laws have become a presidential campaign flash point. President Barack Obama’s supporters say the measures target minorities and other pro-Obama groups.

Republicans say the new laws are needed to combat voter fraud, and it was a Florida law passed last year that enabled the Sproul probe to move forward: It requires groups that register voters to put their organization’s names on every application they submit.

On Monday, Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requested an interview with Mr. Sproul about the allegations.

Mr. Sproul, 40, declined a Washington Post interview, but spokesman David Leibowitz said in an emailed statement that the Sproul firm is cooperating with election authorities, and “will continue to do everything within our power to uncover any unethical or illegal activity in Florida.”

“Obviously, everyone at [the Sproul firm] is disappointed by the end of a years-long fruitful relationship” with the Republican Party, Mr. Leibowitz added, “but they understand why this was done. There can be no distractions right now.”

Mr. Sproul, who has operated a network of at least five Arizona-based consulting firms since 2003, said RNC officials asked him to establish a new firm to shield the party from earlier allegations against him, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Strategic Allied Consulting was incorporated in June in Virginia. Mr. Sproul’s name is not listed on corporate documents.

The RNC’s Mr. Spicer said he was “unaware that that ever occurred.”

In 2004, former canvassers for Mr. Sproul’s firm came forward in four states, alleging that they were told to register only Republicans, with some saying registration forms completed by Democrats were thrown out. The Justice Department investigated the allegations but did not bring charges, according to congressional testimony.

At the time, Mr. Sproul accused Democrats of “having hysterical fits about how well we did our job,” and showing their own “lack of integrity” by feigning anger when “they do the exact same thing every day of the week.”

In his statement Monday, Mr. Leibowitz called the 2004 allegations “isolated instances,” and said the firm was cleared of wrongdoing.