Voters Outreach of America

Voters Outreach of America (VOA) is a voter registration company run by its President and Treasurer, Aaron James. VOA was accused of fraud aimed at preventing Democrats from voting in the 2004 U.S. elections.

In an October 2004 posting, Josh Marshall pointed out that the description of VOA as a Republican funded or Republican backed organisation was justified as "you'll note that on this VOA job flyer posted on careerbuilder.com it says 'Paid for by the Republican National Committee. www.gop.com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee'". (The link to the post on careerbuilder.com is dead and not in the Internet Archive.)

According to Las Vegas, Nevada reporter George Knapp, former VOA employee Eric Russell charged in October 2004 that he had personally witnessed company supervisors destroying hundreds of voter registration forms filled out by Democratic voters. Russell "managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats," Knapp reported. "We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law." As a result, "hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day."

The company was also accused of similar voter registration fraud in the state of Oregon.

Earlier that year Max Blumenthal reported that James had been hired by Nathan Sproul of Sproul & Associates to get petition signatures to get Nader on the ballot. "According to several sources, two of the contractors Sproul hired to oversee petition gathering for No Taxpayer Money For Politicians -- Aaron "A.J." James, who directs Voters' Outreach of America, and Diane Burns -- were also paid by Sproul to get as many signatures as possible for Nader."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007
 * U.S. election irregularities
 * Voter outreach