Couple take battle to vote to justices
Susan Voyles RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL  29 October 2004

 Eric and Traci Amberson went to the Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday, claiming a Republican-financed voter drive either lost or destroyed their registration forms.

“I want my right to vote. My wife and I,” said Amberson of Sparks. Four Reno lawyers filed the petition on behalf of the couple.

The Ambersons’ voter registration receipts show their forms were among a batch assigned to Voter Outreach of America, which is operated by Sproul & Associates of Phoenix.

Sproul has been investigated by Nevada and Oregon state officials over allegations that workers destroyed voter registration forms from Democrats, a charge the company denies.

In a statement Thursday, Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller said the FBI has taken the lead on that investigation because several states are involved.

In a memo to Heller, Investigation Division Deputy Chief Jerry Hafen said Sproul and other voter registration drives might have been victims of employees who falsified hundreds of voter registration forms in order to bepaid in Washoe and Clark counties.

But Heller said the state investigations division found “no evidence or an organized or concerted effort which would influence or impact the result of the elections.”

The Washoe County Registrar’s office has a stack of at least 200 such forms and another 75 that were turned over to the secretary of state, according to officials. The forms contained phony addresses and similar scribbledhandwriting.

The Ambersons registered as Democrats on Oct. 2 with a canvasser outside the Wal-Mart store on Kietzke Lane. The couple didn’t give it a second thought until they didn’t get their sample ballots in the mail.

When they checked their status with the Washoe County Registrar’s office on Oct. 22, they found they were never registered.

Washoe Registrar Dan Burk has said voters ultimately are responsible for turning in their voter registration forms.

In the emergency petition, lawyers for the couple argue the canvasser had set up a table in a public place with an American flag and a sign that said, “Register to Vote Here.”

“The lady sitting at the table with the flag and the sign represented herself as some sort of official voter registrar and assured them that if they filled out the forms, they would automatically be registered,” said Peter Chase Neumann, one of their lawyers. Charles Springer, a former state Supreme Court justice, and Reno lawyers Richard Cornell and Donald Cavin Hill also filed the emergency petition.

The Ambersons kept their receipts for their registration forms. The court filing asks the court to allow the Ambersons and all others with these receipts to be allowed to vote Tuesday.

“We took it to the Supreme Court, and we have gone as far as we can go,” Eric Amberson said. “I’m doing this for my children. You stand on what you believe. If you are not willing, then you don’t amount to too much.”

In Las Vegas earlier Thursday, Clark County District Court Judge Sally Loehrer denied a would-be Democratic voter’s petition to be put on the voting rolls.

But Dwight Brandon, the voter, did have a receipt for the registration form he claims a Sproul worker might have destroyed. However, his testimony and others differed on the date when he tried to register to vote.

Eric Russell, a former Sproul canvasser in Las Vegas, has claimed he saw his supervisor tear up voter registration forms that he turned in from Democrats. Nathan Sproul, the company owner, has filed a defamation lawsuit against him.

Sproul has acknowledged his company tried to register only Republicans, as hired, but denies any forms from Democrats were destroyed.

Sproul, the former director of the Arizona Republican Party, has been paid more than $1 million by the Republican National Committee since July to register Republican voters.