GOP’s potential voter fraud scandal grows

>>> the north carolina republican party is the latest to fire a company under investigation on charges of voter fraud . the company, strategic allied consulting, is run by that man, nathan straul. last week the rnc severed all ties to him because the company was allegedly falsifying registrations on behalf of mitt romney . michael isikoff has been following this story and he joins us live from washington. mike, can you explain why the rnc would appoint this man's company when there were already allegations against him dating back to 2004 ?

>> right. there certainly had been quite a bit of controversy around mr. stroul in the past. he had been accused of voter possession, throwing away democratic registration forms. there are more recently allegations relating to an electoral scheme in arizona to allegedly violate election laws by running an independent expenditure campaign on behalf of an attorney general candidate there. i should point out that there have been no charges filed against mr. sproul or any of his companies, but they were concerned enough so that when sproul got hired in just this past june, he acknowledges that he set up a separate company under this name, strategic allied consulting, so that it wouldn't trace back to the other names that he's operated under, lincoln strategy group is the main one, and so it was clear that they were concerned, both he and the rnc, and he says, sproul told me that he did this at the request of the rnc. so there was clearly concern on both parties' part that some of these past controversies would get some attention if it was known that he was conducting this very major nationwide battleground registration effort on behalf of the rnc.

>> because the rnc spends something like $3 million, they were operating in seven swing states . how wide do you expect this investigation to go? i mean, do you think this man has been operating right across the country in this way?

>> well, he certainly has been operating across the country, but as of now we know of nine or ten counties in florida that have reported irregularities in the registration forms that were submitted by employees of strategic allied consulting mainly in palm beach is the first one to raise these complaints. they found similar signatures on multiple registration forms. they found registration forms that linked the home address of a shell gas station , a land rover dealership, all of which has now been reported to both the state attorney and as of late last week, as of today actually, the florida department of law enforcement has begun a statewide inquiry into the registration activities of this firm.

>> and i'm sure the irony of this with republicans condemning voter fraud is not lost on any of us. nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff . thanks, mike.

>> thank you, martin.

>>> stay with us. the day's "top lines" are coming up.