Liberal consulting company FieldWorks flagged as potentially fraudulent roughly 200 voter registrations it submitted in Hamilton County, Ohio this fall, FOX News reported on November 3. FOX also reported that charges against three FieldWorks canvassers have been referred to the prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and in August a FieldWorks employee gathering Voters First Ohio signatures was indicted on 23 felony charges.

Based in D.C., FieldWorks offers paid canvassing and lobbying services which are frequently utilized by deep-pocketed labor unions. In 2010 a similar business, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), agreed to end all operations in Ohio due to the combination of a national scandal and a detailed list of fraud and corruption allegations in the state.

Like ACORN, FieldWorks leadership has close ties to left-wing Washington politicians. FieldWorks founder Laurie Moskowitz “has served in senior level positions with the Democratic National Committee, campaigns, and advocacy organizations for over 23 years, including as a consultant to the 2004 and 2008 Presidential campaigns.”

The August arrest of Timothy Zureick and the canvasser issues reported by FOX are not the first legal problems FieldWorks has faced in Ohio.

In July 2006, a Cincinnati City Council member filed a lawsuit against FieldWorks, which was canvassing for pro-gambling group Ohio Learn and Earn at the time. Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz claimed FieldWorks was running “a collective dishonest campaign to get voters to feel as though they are supporting scholarships for children, rather than casino locations,” Cincinnati’s Business Courier reported.

Ghiz dropped the suit months later, after Ohio Learn and Earn had collected enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot. According to the Business Courier, Ghiz claimed “she was filing the dismissal as part of negotiations in which Learn and Earn would pay Cincinnati a ‘significant but yet unspecified amount of money,’ if the initiative is successful.”

The ballot initiative ultimately failed.

In October 2009, FieldWorks ceased canvassing for the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, a new pro-casino PAC, after Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies raided the campaign’s offices. “Employees at the Hamilton County Board of Elections noticed discrepancies in 38 mailed-in applications last week,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.

“Evidence of alleged fraud also has turned up in Franklin County, where the board of elections received six or seven questionable absentee ballot applications and sent them to Hamilton County for comparison,” the AP reporter added.

Days later, FieldWorks employee Walter Sullivan was indicted in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on multiple fifth-degree felony counts. “Sullivan was charged with five counts of false signatures for forging applications for absentee ballots. If convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum of five years in prison,” the Dayton Daily News reported.

Sullivan was convicted on all five counts after pleading guilty, and served two years of probation.

Based on Franklin County Common Pleas Court records, FieldWorks has not paid off a lien filed by the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation more than four years ago (case number 08JG11677). FieldWorks owed over $600 as of February 2008.

As the result of a 2010 civil suit filed against FieldWorks in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, a judgment (JL-11-446318) was issued for nearly $1,600 the company owed a landlord. Court records indicate FieldWorks still has not paid off the lien, which began accruing interest on November 9, 2010.

Currently, FieldWorks canvasser Timothy Zureick faces 23 felony charges after allegedly submitting fraudulent Voters First Ohio petitions. In October, Zureick pled not guilty by reason of insanity.

Cross-posted from Media Trackers Ohio.