Soros-supported voter-registration drive probed

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Billionaire currency trader George Soros, in his quest to unseat President Bush, has given millions of dollars to a coalition of anti-Bush organizations whose nationwide voter-registration drive has been targeted by state and federal authorities for possible widespread fraud.

Working under an umbrella organization known as America Votes, the coalition's registration drive -- described by election officials as the largest in U.S. history -- focused on potential voters in 14 so-called battleground states.

America Votes, which represents a collection of labor unions, trial lawyers, environmental groups and community organizations representing 20 million Americans, describes itself as a "nonpartisan political organization" that seeks to use the strategic abilities and large membership base of its coalition members to "break new ground in electoral politics."

Its goal is to "register, educate and mobilize" voters for this year's elections, but some of those efforts are now being challenged.

Hundreds of questionable voter-registration applications, such as duplicates, and accusations of workers shredding registrations in favor of one party are under review by local, state and federal law-enforcement and election authorities in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, Oregon, Ohio, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The coalition spent more than $100 million on its voter-registration campaign, according to financial records and several people familiar with the member organizations. Despite its nonpartisan claim, its membership includes 32 groups committed to Mr. Bush's defeat.

Cecile Richards, a veteran labor and political organizer, is the coalition's president. Before coming to America Votes, she served as deputy chief of staff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat.

"The launch of America Votes is a groundbreaking endeavor in American politics," she said. "We look forward to working together to reach out to voters and to talk about the issues that are important to Americans. America Votes is going to make an historic impact on the political process in this country."

As a key contributor to the coalition, Mr. Soros, whose estimated net worth is $7 billion, is on a one-month speaking tour in several battleground states, where he has taken Mr. Bush to task for what he called "missteps" in the war in Iraq.

Mr. Soros has described the Nov. 2 elections and the defeat of Mr. Bush as "the central focus of my life." To that end, he has routed millions of dollars to coalition members, key among which are MoveOn.org, an anti-Bush Internet-based advocacy group, and America Coming Together (ACT), which is dedicated to get-out-the-vote activities for Democratic candidates, particularly this year.