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No Pima registration abuses found against state firm

PHOENIX - Pima County elections officials have found no irregularities or potential voter registration abuses similar to claims made in other states against an Arizona-based firm. Chris Roads, the county registrar of voters, said spot checks of groups that have requested bulk amounts of voter registration forms have not shown heavy advantages toward one party or the other. "Of the ones we were getting from large groups, there was nothing jumping out like that," Roads said Friday. Nathan Sproul, whose Chandler firm Sproul and Associates was contracted by the national Republican Party to register voters, has faced allegations that his company made it hard for subcontractors to register Democrats. A former employee of a Sproul contractor in Nevada said the company ripped up Democratic registrations. Sproul filed suit Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court against the former employee, Eric Russell, claiming defamation and infliction of emotional distress and seeking unspecified damages. Sproul contends Russell is a disgruntled employee who was upset about being fired over a pay dispute. Russell could not be reached for comment Friday. Yvonne Reed, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, said no one with an apparent connection to Sproul has requested large numbers of registration forms. The county did not look at whether a particular group was registering large numbers of voters in one party or the other. People must register to vote in the county they reside in, and an attempt to register someone from Pima County with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office would not work, Reed said. Sproul said he conducted voter registration efforts in Arizona but did not provide the names of the subcontractors he used and would not provide the numbers of voters he registered. Sproul has denied all allegations of wrongdoing but has noted that he was out to register Republicans. He is the former head of the state Republican Party and often works for GOP and conservative causes. Sproul said he registered more than 1,000 Democrats throughout Nevada. However, he refused to disclose the number of new Republican voters his effort captured. Voter registration efforts connected to Sproul have also been questioned in Oregon and other states.