9news.com - I-Team uncovers partisan tactics in Colorado voter registration drives

Updated: 10/25/2004 11:09 AM MDT

LAKEWOOD - 'I thought it was very questionable what they were doing,' said Frank Taylor, a former registration worker. Taylor registered some 75 new voters in June for the group 'Choose 2 Vote.'

But when he turned in the forms to the company based in Lakewood, he was only paid for a few of them. 'They wouldn't pay us if they were Republican,' said Taylor. Workers were paid $3 per application if the voter registered Democrat, unaffiliated or independent, but nothing for Republican.

Taylor says he finally quit because he wasn't getting paid for at least half of the forms he was submitting to 'Choose 2 Vote.'

Company spokesman Derrick Lee admitted to 9NEWS he was only interested in registering Democrats.

'Yeah, what do you want me to say? It's true,' said Lee. 'The Republicans weren't paying money for voter registrations.'

Lee would not say which Democrats funded his voter registration drive.

'I have folks who were willing to pay me to do it,' said Lee.

While the selective payments are not illegal, the Colorado Republican Chairman says it's also not ethical.

"By not making it an even playing field for all registrations, like we do it, you're almost encouraging them not to do it even-handedly," said Ted Halaby, GOP Chairman. "What that does is encourages fraud," he said.

In fact, Arapahoe County received so many questionable registration forms from "Choose 2 Vote" in April, it turned them over to the Secretary of State for investigation.

"We are concerned that some of these applications, which have been filed in Arapahoe County, may involve voter registration fraud," wrote Nancy Doty, Arapahoe County Clerk to Donetta Davidson.

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