Librarians for Real Democracy

A local librarian checking on a company’s request to set up a voter registration booth in the library discovered the company was not affiliated with a non-partisan national group as it claimed.

Sproul & Associates, Inc. of Phoenix, Ariz., phoned and mailed the library in September, saying it had been hired by America Votes.

That came as news to America Votes.

"This organization (Sproul) absolutely has nothing to do with America Votes," said Kevin Looper, the state organizing director for America Votes.

America Votes is a non-partisan political organization formed in July 2003 to increase voter registration, education and participation in electoral politics.

Libraries in Oregon and other states have been contacted by Sproul. Looper said attorneys at America Votes’ Washington, D.C. headquarters have taken over.

"We are in the process of pursuing all of our legal options to pursue (an order to) cease and desist."

But the man behind the matter says it was an innocent mistake.

"We were not trying to copy their name," said Nathan Sproul, owner of the consulting and management company. "All we were trying to do is register people to vote."

In September, the Jackson County Library Services Central Library received a letter from Sproul & Associates, Inc. which began:

"Our firm has been contracted to help coordinate a national non-partisan voter registration drive, America Votes! in several states across the nation."

The letter went on to ask if the company could register people to vote in front of the library.

Meghan O’Flaherty, headquarters library manager, contacted Kevin Looper, who informed her America Votes did not hire the firm.

That’s when she learned that Sproul & Associates, Inc. is a political consulting firm headed up by former Arizona state Republican Party executive director Nathan Sproul.

"The only problem I have with it ... is that they’re misrepresenting themselves as someone they’re not," she said. [emphasis mine, dirty tricks theirs]