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  1. #1

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    NC Bill may restrict voter drives

    http://www.newsobserver.com/politics...-8725922c.html

    Published: Apr 26, 2005
    Modified: Apr 26, 2005 3:00 AM

    Bill may restrict voter drives
    Faked forms spark a proposal to end payments to workers per registration

    By RYAN TEAGUE BECKWITH, Staff Writer

    RALEIGH -- A batch of phony voter registrations turned in last year could lead to new restrictions on voter registration campaigns.
    The N.C. Board of Elections has asked the legislature to pass a law that would forbid organizers of voter drives in North Carolina from paying workers for every person they register.

    The change was requested after paid canvassers with a voter drive in Wake County turned in forms with bogus information in the fall.

    Under House Bill 1115, paying or accepting money for the number of voters registered would be a Class 2 misdemeanor, similar to writing a worthless check. Punishment for a first offense would be community service and/or a fine of up to $1,000.

    It would still be legal to pay workers by the hour to register voters.

    If passed, the bill would not affect the bulk of voter drives in North Carolina, which are run with volunteers. But it could affect some longstanding initiatives to boost voter rolls.

    For the past four years, the N.C. Republican Party has paid college chapters and other groups $1 for every Republican they register in a voter drive. State GOP political director Bill Peaslee said he was not sure whether the bill would make that program illegal.

    The proposal received mixed reviews from organizers of voter drives in Wake County. Some said they thought it would hamper voter registration efforts. Others said that fraud was a greater danger.

    Apex homemaker Linda McCarley, who organized an all-volunteer drive for the League of Women Voters in the fall, said paying canvassers by the form is more effective.

    "It motivates them to really go where the people are," she said. "If they're paid by the hour, they're not going to be as aggressive in seeking out people to register to vote."

    Douglas Matheson, who organized a volunteer voter drive in northern Wake County for the Republican Party in the fall, said paying workers by the form encourages fraud.

    "I don't think there should be bounty hunters," said Matheson, 63. "I think there should be people out there that legitimately believe in what they're doing, or else are paid employees" with hourly wages.

    The proposal grew out of problems with a statewide voter drive run by the N.C. Public Interest Research Group last year. The nonprofit's Community Voters Project was aimed at registering low-income and minority voters.

    Workers were paid $40 for a five-hour shift and an extra $10 if they registered more than 15 voters a day. But some turned in forms with nonexistent addresses, suspicious signatures or birth dates that appeared to have been altered.

    The U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating the voter drive. Under federal law, it is a felony to turn in a fraudulent voter registration form, with punishment ranging up to five years in prison and a fine.

    Marshall Tutor, an investigator with the state Board of Elections who looked into the N.C. PIRG drive, said he has not seen any evidence of an "organized effort" to taint the election or commit fraud.

    "It was just laziness on the part of some low-paid employees who tried to make a little money," he said.

    Elizabeth Ouzts, state director of N.C. PIRG, said the bad forms were done over a couple days by three workers who were later fired. She said that only 50 forms had problems out of a total of 28,000 voter registrations across the state.

    "Overall, we felt the project was a great success," she said.

    Peaslee, with the state Republican Party, said the bogus forms caused headaches for elections workers and cost taxpayer money to sort out. He said N.C. PIRG invited the problem by paying its workers the bonuses.

    "The people who filled out fraudulent registrations would not have done so had N.C. PIRG not been paying them to do it," he said.

    Ouzts said the real problem was that supervisors were not following the standard procedure of spot-checking forms turned in by canvassers. But she said her group does not oppose the proposed change in election law.

    "We ran this project in a number of states that have a similar law, and we're fine with it," she said.

    Staff writer Ryan Teague Beckwith can be reached at 836-4944 or rbeckwit@newsobserver.com.

    House Bill 1115:
    "No person who employs or contracts with another person to register voters or assist or encourage voters to fill out voter registration forms shall pay that person per voter registration application completed. No person shall accept payment per voter registration application. A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor."
    (N.C. GENERAL ASSEMBLY)
    Voter drives
    Voter drives registered with the Wake County Board of Elections in 2004 reveals a diverse bunch. About the only thing they had in common is that most did not use paid workers.

    * Korean First Baptist in North Raleigh handed out forms to church members and neighborhood residents on two Sunday afternoons in September.

    * Volunteers with Equality North Carolina set up booths on weekends in the fall at Raleigh gay clubs Legends, Capitol Corral and Flex.

    * Raleigh pizza delivery guy Charles Chesney dropped off forms while making rounds for Gumby's on Hillsborough Street. He called the effort "Get Free or Die Tryin'," after his favorite hip-hop album.
    (WAKE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, STAFF RESEARCH)

  2. #2
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    The N.C. Board of Elections has asked the legislature to pass a law that would forbid organizers of voter drives in North Carolina from paying workers for every person they register.
    Good.
    Paying someone to register people to vote is a recipe for disaster.
    If you aren't motivated to register on your own, then maybe you shouldn't vote.
    http://www.alipac.us Enforce immigration laws!

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