Congressman Patrick McHenry aide indicted on voter fraud charges, Proud of Who We Are reports on additional men registered at NC politician's home, and staffer registered to vote in district while paid at other address
Research for this report provided
by Muriel Kane.
CBS News reported today that Michael
Aaron Lay, an aide to Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), was
arrested on voter fraud charges.
There is more to the
story than you're reading in the CBS news item. LOTS MORE.
First
here's the item from CBS on Lay:
The indictment charges that Michael Aaron Lay, 26, illegally cast his ballot in two 2004 Congressional primary run-offs in which McHenry was a candidate. The charges indicate that Lay voted in a district where it was not legal for him to vote. At the time Lay was listed as a resident in a home owned by 32-year-old McHenry but campaign records indicate Lay's paychecks were sent to an address in Tennessee. McHenry won the primary by only 86 votes. According to Gaston County, North Carolina District Attorney Locke Bell, Lay was indicted on Monday, May 7 by a local grand jury.Proud of Who We are has obtained a copy of Lay's voter registration record along with other documents that point to a wider scope of potential voter fraud. Here's a copy of the voter registration information on Michael Aaron Lay:
Here is the voting, showing the only time Lay voted in the District was during McHenry's first campaign:
AT THE SAME TIME, he was registered to vote in NC, here's four of the many payment entries from McHenry's FEC reports, where he is paid at a Tennessee address:
That is where the CBS Story ends.
Proud of who we are has learned that another McHenry staffer, Jason Jent Deans, was registered to vote in McHenry's district while on the campaign's payroll. Deans's salary was paid to him at another address.
Here's an archived copy of Deans's registration
and voting record. He voted in McHenry's district in '06. The registration
record is from the NC voter records site, and was on line as late as October
of '06, when it was provided to Proud of Who We Are:
What was Mr. Deans getting paid for in 2004? Working for the McHenry campaign. AND... at different address than his registration. Here are some of the FEC reports on Jason Jent Deans showing him being paid in a different state from his voter registration:
Proud of Who We Are has found that Mr. Deans changed his voter registration location. Could it be that he was aware of the CBS story or the forthcoming indictments against Lay? Here's the latest registration for Mr. Deans:
Proud of Who We Are has also found another person who registered at the address just before McHenry's first election, Matthew Allen Hamilton. While the NC election records indicate that Matthew Allen Hamilton registered to vote at the address in October 29, 1998, just before election day. He didn't vote in that election and did not start voting until November of 2002, four years after he registered. Interestingly, the only primaries he voted in were the ones in which McHenry ran, including a runoff in August of '04:
And in that tightly fought primary in '04, Hamilton voted by absentee ballot:
Additionally, Proud of Who Are has discovered and additional registration at McHenry's home. On June 23, 2004 Neil Everett Capano also registered at 1100 Requa Road, McHenry's residence:
Ironically, McHenry was one of the Republican members of the House to speak out the most vociferously on the resignation of Mark Foley from the House after Foley's emails to underage pages were made public. McHenry attacked then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Rahm Emanuel for what he asserted was their role in helping to cover-up the Foley scandal.
In an appearance on CNN, McHenry characterized the Foley "obscure congressman from Florida." Foley, a five-term congressman from Florida, held a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. The CNN Video may be seen here: