It began with a shaky video posted on YouTube of a voter registration drive in Colorado Springs. But a flap over the drive hardly ended there, as new details emerged Friday, including ties to a discredited Virginia company.

The video shows a young woman trying to sign up Republicans to vote in the Nov. 6 election. Another woman, a Colorado Springs grandmother and Democratic precinct captain, shot the video on her camera phone, thinking she had stumbled upon an illegal voter registration drive. But there was nothing illegal about what the young woman was doing.

The video has since gone viral, viewed nearly 425,000 times by Friday afternoon.

The El Paso County clerk’s office spent hours explaining how voter registration works and how what the flustered 20-year-old woman said in the video —  that she was working for the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office — was patently wrong.

The woman who shot the video has become embroiled in a debate over the title she used for it on YouTube.

On Friday, local officials confirmed that the young woman was working for a company called Strategic Allied Consulting, which specializes in signing up new voters. Strategic was fired Thursday by both the national and state Republican parties after it was linked to possible voter fraud in Florida.

Bill Roy, chief operating officer of the El Paso County GOP, said Strategic was responsible for more than possible voter fraud.

“This is an organization that is characterized by mismanagement, ineptitude, stupidity, and they got what they deserved,” Roy said, and called Strategic a “shadow organization” for trying to keep its identity from the public.

The young woman in the video is 20-year-old Victoria Bautista, according to Roy. She was working two jobs, paying her way through school.

The Gazette attempted to reach her but was unsuccessful. Roy said she did not want to comment to the media.

Strategic required its employees to sign non-disclosure forms, pledging  they wouldn’t tell anyone who they worked for. That’s why Bautista said on the video that she worked for the county clerk’s office — she was caught off-guard, and had to lie for Strategic, Roy said.

Roy also said he banned one of Strategic’s supervisors from the county party headquarters after the company threatened to fire a top-notch employee.

The company, he said, had requested business cards with the county GOP logo. Company officials changed their minds after getting the cards, and told their employees to destroy them.

One employee did not destroy all the cards, Roy said, and a Strategic supervisor wanted him fired. Roy said the supervisor refused to discuss the matter with him.

“We do not permit that type of conduct, so it’s like, ‘OK, you’re out of here,’” Roy said.

When asked for comment, Strategic referred The Gazette to a statement on its website defending its work. The statement did not address the Colorado Springs video incident.

The video with Bautista, taken in mid-August, was posted on YouTube on Sept. 21.Strategic had been hired by Republicans to register voters in crucial swing states — including Colorado, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Nevada.

Republican Party officials said Aug. 14 was Bautista’s third day registering voters and her first day working alone. She was screening passers-by outside a local Safeway store.When questioned about who she worked for, the young woman stuttered, and finally said it was the county clerk’s office.

The title of the video on YouTube is “El Paso County, Colorado employee Voter Registration.”Clerk & Recorder Wayne Williams said that’s misleading.

“She has never worked for us,” he said.

Alissa Vander Veen, chief deputy and communications manager for the clerk’s office, said, “It’s completely legal to pre-screen. They’re not required to offer a voter registration form. They have a requirement to turn it in to our office if somebody fills one out.”

Williams said if anyone thought Bautista worked for his office, it should’ve been addressed immediately. But no one asked.

Williams said the ensuing controversy caused his office to deal with emails, phone calls and media requests. One phone call made a threat against Williams.

“The result is we’re spending staff time, which is tax dollars, responding to questions about this,” Williams said.

Williams said he sent a message on YouTube to the woman who shot the video, asking her to change the inaccurate headline.

“She said she wasn’t going to change it,” Williams said.

The woman, who posts as “golddiggermom” on YouTube, is one of 254 precinct chairs for the county Democratic Party, according to Christy Le Lait, executive director of the El Paso County Democratic Party.

“Golddiggermom” said she never saw Williams’ request. She requested anonymity for this story, citing fear of retribution. She said she won’t change the YouTube title of the video.

“I’m not convinced she doesn’t work for the clerk’s office,” she said. “I’m holding firm and not promising to change it in the future.”

“Golddiggermom,” who volunteered at the Democratic National Convention during a three-week vacation trip, said she had Bautista’s name removed from the video to protect her.

“I’m just a grandma with a shaky hand,” she said. “I had to have a friend edit the video for me. They didn’t get it back to me for five weeks. I don’t think anybody has a video like this, so I thought it was valuable.”

Eli Bremer, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, said the video should be removed from YouTube.

“The girl did nothing wrong. She mis-stated she works for the county clerk,” Bremer said. “There are no indications any laws were broken. A 20-year-old girl panicked. Tell them to throw down a CORA (Colorado Open Records Act request). If they can’t prove she worked for the clerk, take the video down, because it’s a bold-faced lie they are spreading around the country.

“They need to prove voter fraud. They scared the bejeebers out of this girl, who made a mistake.”

Republican State Party Chairman Ryan Call said party officials have seen no evidence that Strategic committed fraud in Colorado. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office is not investigating Strategic, a spokesman said.—Contact Bob Stephens: 636-0276, Twitter @bobgstephens, Facebook Gazette Bob Stephens

Contact John Schroyer: 467-4825, Twitter @Johnschroyer, Facebook: Gazette John Schroyer

Photo by