Late last week, I noted that a fellow by the name of Howard Brewer from Arizona pled guilty to voter registration fraud in Codington County. Brewer claimed to be working for a group called "Choose to Vote." I encouraged the local media to investigate the group called "Choose to Vote," as that organization's name had appeared in an earlier story regarding the scrutiny of voter registration.
Now, an indispensable source has done some sleuthing, and reported back some interesting facts. First of all, the organization is called "Choose2Vote" and can be found at the website choose2vote.org. This website is registered to a person named Derrick Lee of Gilbert, Arizona. Gilbert is a suburb of Phoenix, which is where Howard Brewer is from, according to the AP.
A Google search of the terms "Derrick Lee" and "Arizona" yields some troubling pieces of information. It turns out that Derrick Lee is a well-known figure in the petition industry, and his employees are frequently investigated for fraud. A piece in the East Valley Tribune headlined "The Petition Machine;
The petition industry operates with few rules and many controversies" reports that less than half the signatures were valid in one of Lee's petition efforts in 2000. Further into the piece, we find this fact:
Lee's company also is at the center of many of the major controversies that have arisen in petition drives in recent years. Four of the five paid petition circulators who have been prosecuted for fraud and forgery since 1997 were working for Lee at the time they committed their crimes, according to court records.
The Phoenix New Times has a long piece on Derrick Lee that I've only partially read, headlined "Autograph Hound; Derrick Lee is the most powerful political figure you've never heard of."
The Phoenix New Times also has a piece headlined "Bad Sign; High rate of Reform Party invalid signatures may signal trouble for other ballot measures" detailing the infamous fraudulent signatures episode referred to above.
Interestingly, Lee was also hired to obtain signatures in the ultimately successful effort to recall Governor Gray Davis of California.
Campaigns hire Derrick Lee to gather signatures in order to put their candidate or initiative on the ballot. In other words, he makes money for every signature he turns in. Apparently, he is now being paid to turn in voter registration forms in South Dakota. The big question now is: who exactly is paying Derrick Lee to turn in voter registration forms in South Dakota?
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