Elections supervisor suspects voter registration fraud in Palm Beach County

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher has sent 106 voter registration forms to the state attorney's office because she says they were doctored.

The forms were submitted by Strategic Allied Consultants, a voter registration group hired by state Republicans, for more than a million dollars, to sign-up new voters.

They were fired after elections supervisor Susan Bucher noticed the forms had signatures that looked like they were signed by the same person.

"There were a lot of signatures that appeared to be common. There was a lot of missing information. It just didn't appear to be real consistent," said Bucher."

Strategic Allied Consultants is a voter registration group hired by state Republicans to sign-up new voters.

They're one of about 25 active third party firms in Palm Beach County whose goals are often to sign up voters, who statistics say, are likely to vote for certain candidates.

State Republicans paid $1.3 million to Strategic Allied Consultants this year, more than anyone else they wrote checks to.

Once elections supervisor Susan Bucher discovered the possible fraud, she delivered them to the state attorney and called county Republicans.

"I don't believe there was any knowledge locally because they were very forthcoming and as disturbed as we are about the issue," said Bucher.

Going back and figuring out how many voters may have been registered by this third-party firm is nearly impossible.

That's because on the voter registration form, while there is a place on the back to identify who registered a voter, the law does not require that information entered in the computer database.

"We're not sure if we have processed forms for other voters that were not their request," said Bucher.

State Republican Party of Florida Executive Director Mike Grissom told our news partners at the Palm Beach Post:

“When we learned today about the instances of potential voter registration fraud that occurred in Palm Beach County, we immediately informed the Republican National Committee that we were terminating the contract with the voter registration vendor we hired at their request because there is no place for voter registration fraud in Florida. ”